Toll fears after Afghan landslide



KUNDUZ, AFGHANISTAN // More than 70 people were trapped in rubble after houses made of mud collapsed from two strong earthquakes on Monday that triggered a landslide in the mountains of northern Afghanistan, officials said.

A remote village in Baghlan province appeared to have taken the brunt of the damage, the provincial police chief said, adding that information was trickling in slowly from the site.

Asadullah Shirzad said more than 70 people were trapped in Dara Azara village, but he had no information about casualties so far.

"We have sent a rescue team. There is no report of dead or wounded yet."

A quake measuring 5.4 struck the Hindu Kush region followed by a 5.7 aftershock, the United States Geological Survey said. It was centered 174km north of Kabul, where the quake was also felt.

One woman has been rescued from the area, said Ghulam Farooq, head of the disaster operation center in Kabul.

He said 22 houses had been destroyed and most of the missing were women and children.

The Bio

Ram Buxani earned a salary of 125 rupees per month in 1959

Indian currency was then legal tender in the Trucial States.

He received the wages plus food, accommodation, a haircut and cinema ticket twice a month and actuals for shaving and laundry expenses

Buxani followed in his father’s footsteps when he applied for a job overseas

His father Jivat Ram worked in general merchandize store in Gibraltar and the Canary Islands in the early 1930s

Buxani grew the UAE business over several sectors from retail to financial services but is attached to the original textile business

He talks in detail about natural fibres, the texture of cloth, mirrorwork and embroidery 

Buxani lives by a simple philosophy – do good to all