Mansehra: In a country known for religious intolerance, Radesh Singh ?a Sikh ?and his group of Hindu, Christian and Muslim friends have joined forces to help survivors of northern Pakistan's devastating earthquake.
They hope efforts to provide relief and care will send a clear message in conservative, predominantly Muslim Pakistan.
''We are here without any religious bias for people who are in dire need of help and care,'' Radesh told Reuters in Mansehra, a district in Northwest Frontier Province now in ruins after Saturday's disaster.
''We are also hoping that our efforts will give out a message that people from different religious backgrounds and communities can live peacefully together and help each other.''
An estimated 96 per cent of Pakistan's population is Muslim, about 1.7 per cent is Christian and some 2.0 per cent are Hindu, others accounting for less than 0.5 per cent.
Minorities in Pakistan have been a growing target of Islamic militants recently.
Just last week there was a bomb attack on a religious centre of the Ahmadi sect in the central province of Punjab that killed eight and wounded more than a dozen.
Radesh, who runs his own business in the province's capital, Peshawar, came with a truckload of medicines, blankets, clothing and dry food mustered by his Sikh friends Rajinder and Ranjit Singh, Hindus Prakash and Diyaram and Emmanuel, a Christian.
''It is simply an effort on our parts for the earthquake victims, who are in dire need of help. We have come here as human beings not as Sikhs, Christians, Hindus or Muslims,'' Ranjit said.
Rajinder and his Sikh friends were born in Peshawar and say they are Pakistanis to the hilt.
''I even ran for the local bodies elections this time but lost,'' Rajinder said.
Yesterday night they were faced with a different kind of problem.
Having heard of incidents of looting of private relief vehicles and violence in badly hit areas, Rajinder and his friends stopped over in Mansehra saying he and his friends wanted to distribute the goods under the supervision of the army.
''We just want these goods to reach the deserving people. We have come here as human beings and don't want to get involved in any violent incidents,'' Emanuel said.
The destruction and loss of life caused by the earthquake has also seen many relief workers and volunteers from different nationalities helping survivors in northern Pakistan.
France-based Telecoms Sans Frontieres has been offering free phone calls to survivors in the nearby city of Balakot, which has been without power or communications since the earthquake.
In the first two hours that representative Simon Genin set up his satellite telephone service, 110 persons made calls to relatives in and outside Pakistan.
''We have worked in 40 disaster areas and we see the same images
everywhere. It is painful to see but we have to do our bit to help
the victims,'' Genin said.
He said research had shown that providing an opportunity to earthquake victims to speak to their relatives was psychologically good for them.
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