Second earthquake hits Pakistani province reeling from previous tremor

A 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck the southwestern Pakistani province of Balochistan Saturday, killing at least 12 people in a region where hundreds of people have already died after a quake hit just days ago, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reports.

The latest earthquake occurred about 60 miles northeast of the city of Awaran. Its epicenter was about 20 miles from Tuesday's 7.7-magnitude earthquake according to USGS data.

"It was not an aftershock; it was an independent earthquake," Zahid Rafi, director of the National Seismic Center of Pakistan, told local news television station Geo TV.

A reporter with Agence France-Presse in Awaran said that hundreds of patients being treated in the aftermath of the previous quake fled a hospital in panic as the new tremor hit.

"We are checking but no reports of losses have yet been received," said Jan Mohammad Buledi, spokesman for the provincial government according to AFP.

At least 359 people were killed, and another 765 injured, as a result of Tuesday's quake which struck the impoverished region of southwestern Pakistan, according to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority's official figures.

Unofficial estimates put the number of dead at more than 500.

The government says that more than 185,000 people have been affected by that tremor, and that rescue and relief activities are being undertaken by the civil administration in conjunction with the army.

The population of Awaran district is scattered over more than 13,000 square miles of remote and rugged terrain, where infrastructure is limited and there is little in the way of few medical facilities or even roads.

Conditions are desperate among the survivors and many are going without food, water and shelter, according to Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder, reporting from Awaran.

The government says that it has delivered more than 11,800 tents to survivors, and that several medical teams are now operating in the area. Other items to be distributed included blankets, food packets, water, mosquito nets and other essentials.

Rescue efforts have been hampered both by the remoteness of the area, and by attacks carried out by separatist Baloch rebels against army convoys carrying the aid.

Rebels have been fighting the Pakistani state in Balochistan for decades, demanding greater rights for the ethnic Baloch people and alleging that the federal government does not adequately compensate Balochistan for its natural resources.

Al Jazeera and AFP