The Gulf states of Saudi Arabia and Qatar announced overnight Sunday they were sending emergency humanitarian aid to Pakistan following the killer earthquake that struck South Asia early Saturday. UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahayan also ordered the immediate dispatch of humanitarian aid to quake-hit areas of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan.
Saudi King Abdullah ordered the “rapid” establishment of an airlift of doctors, medicines, tents, covers and food to Pakistan, said the state news agency SPA.
A spokesman at the Qatari foreign ministry said Doha had also decided to contribute with an urgent humanitarian aid to the victims of the earthquake in Pakistan, the official news agency QNA said.
Late Saturday, a 26-strong police rescue team from Abu Dhabi police left for Pakistan to help search for survivors and treat the wounded from the earthquake.
The quake, measuring 7.6 degrees on the Richter scale, was registered 95 kilometers northeast of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Saturday. It has claimed at least 18,000 lives and injured 40,000 others.
