India is planning to send a sixth C-17 heavy lift transport aircraft with relief material and medicine to help earthquake hit Turkiye today with the aircraft carrying humanitarian aid flying a circuitous route via Iran as Pakistan does not give permission to Indian military aircraft.
It is understood that Turkiye has denied the proposed visit of Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his Foreign Minister Bilawal Zardari as Ankara is busy in earthquake rescue and relief operations. PM Sharif and FM Zardari wanted to visit Ankara to show solidarity with Turkiye at the time of the earthquake disaster.
India on its part has already four C-17 plane loads of relief material, equipment and personnel, weighing over 108 tons to Turikye and one C-17 to Syria for disaster relief. They include:
* Self-contained search and rescue units of NDRF numbering over 100 personnel, with their equipment, vehicles and dog squads. These units have specialized equipment for detection, location, access and extrication, and are able to conduct collapsed structure search and rescue (CSSR) operations. Equipment includes hand and power tools, lighting equipment, air-lifting bags, chainsaw, angle cutters, rotary rescue saw, victim location equipment, life detectors, etc. The dog squads help locate victims in rubble and collapsed structures.
• Equipment and 99 personnel to set up a 30-bed medical facility in field operation conditions. Personnel comprises medical specialists in various fields. Medical equipment includes x-ray machines, ventilators, operation-theater, vehicles, ambulances, generators, etc.
As far as Syria is concerned, India has already sent over 6 tons of relief material including 3 truckloads of general and protective gear, emergency use medicines, syringes and equipment including ECG machines, monitors, and other essential medical items.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi is committed to full humanitarian assistance and disaster relief to quake hit Turkiye and Syria, it is quite surprising that Ankara’s so-called Islamic blood brother Pakistan does not give air over flight permission to Indian military aircraft carrying aid to disaster hit countries. Fact is that this time, India does not even ask for permission from Islamabad as the latter would not have given the permission and only wasted time.
Even when India wanted to send food, medicine and material relief to neighboring Afghanistan via road, Pakistan after much delay allowed only empty trucks to come from Kabul to pick up relief from India as a result of which the cost of humanitarian aid was double for India. It is quite evident that the economic crisis hit Pakistan cannot itself provide relief to Turkiye and Syria at the scale required but will place hurdles on Indian efforts to save lives in these quake hit nations.
