IT was yet another tragic day for Balochistan. As many as 216 people were killed, scores of others injured and over 15000 displaced when a powerful predawn earthquake measuring 6.4 n the Richter scale struck 60 kilometers northeast of Quetta. The toll is expected to rise further, as many people remained buried under the rubble. Most of the deaths were in remote villages where mud houses were destroyed by the landslides triggered by tremors. Provincial Revenue Minister Zamaruk Khan was quoted as telling a foreign wire agency that eight villages in Ziarat had been badly hit, and there were still many areas that had not been reached. In Quetta also, people fled screaming from their homes. Balochistan is no stranger to severe calamities. More than 30,000 people were killed and Quetta was largely destroyed in an earthquake in 1935. But the deadliest quake was in October 2005 that had left over 80,000 dead and hundreds of thousands displaced in Azad Kashmir and adjacent parts of NWFP. Three years down the line, many of them have not been rehabilitated despite massive financial assistance from the international donor agencies. The Balochistan government would be concerned about how to provide shelter to the people rendered homeless by the earthquake, from its limited resources. Chairman National Disaster Management Authority chief Lt Gen (retd) Farooq Ahmad told the media tents, blankets and food had been sent to the affected areas along with medical teams to treat the injured. But the fact remains that a number of villages in the mountainous region were still inaccessible as the road leading to Ziarat was blocked by landslides. The argument that there is no remedy against natural disasters cannot be disputed. But their consequences can be minimized by expediting rescue work and rehabilitating the survivors who continue to suffer for lack of food and shelter. This is going to be a real test for the elected government's capability of handling the crisis caused by a national tragedy.