ISLAMABAD : China yesterday handed over its second batch of relief goods worth 20 million yuan ($3.05 million) to Pakistan for the people affected by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake which hit the country on Oct 26 last year.
Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Sun Weidong and Major General Asghar Nawaz, chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) of Pakistan attended the handover ceremony in Pakistani capital of Islamabad.
On the occasion, Ambassador Sun said: "Since China and Pakistan are all-weather strategic partners of cooperation sharing weal and woe, we can feel the sufferings of the Pakistani people and stand firmly with the Pakistani side. We will do our utmost for the relief of people in earthquake-stricken areas."
Appreciating the compassion of the Chinese people and government for the people of Pakistan and their commitment to stand alongside Pakistan during difficult times, the NDMA chairman said, "China is the only country from which Pakistan has received aid following the earthquake that shows deep and sincere relations between the two brotherly countries."
The second batch of relief consignment mainly include 2,950 tents for the earthquake affected people. China provided the first batch of humanitarian aid worth 10 million yuan (about 1.6 million U.S. dollars) shortly after the earthquake that killed 280 people, wounded 1,770 others and damaged lots of houses. The first batch included 300 tents, 20,000 blankets and 60 electricity generators.
China was the first country to provide the humanitarian aid to Pakistan for the relief of the earthquake-affected people on Nov. 5 last year.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang had sent respectively messages of sympathy and condolences to their Pakistani counterparts over the causalities and losses Pakistan had suffered in the earthquake.
Soon after the earthquake, the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) had also donated 100,000 U.S. dollars to Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) for the earthquake affected people. Chinese Embassy in Islamabad also sent blankets, food items and bottled water to the affected people in the country's northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.