First cargo of the Iranian Red Crescent Society's humanitarian aids for the victims of the recent devastating earthquake in Tajikistan arrived in Dushanbe on Tuesday, Fars News Agency reported.
Iran's Ambassador to Tajikistan Ali Asqar She'rdoust told FNA that the Iranian aid cargo was sent to the Central Asian state after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was informed of the volume of the damages incurred on the country by the quake.
The Iranian president, heading a high-ranking politico-economic delegation, visited Dushanbe last Monday on the first leg of his bi-nation tour of Tajikistan and Turkmenistan to confer on the further bolstering of bilateral ties and cooperation in meetings with senior officials of the two Central Asian states.
After he returned to Iran, President Ahmadinejad ordered the RC to dispatch two cargoes of humanitarian aids to Tajikistan, She'rdoust added.
The ambassador further said that the first cargo was sent to Dushanbe by air, while the second one would be dispatched to the Central Asian state by land.
He said that the second aid cargo would reach Tajikistan within the next few days.
About 20,000 people were left homeless in the Central Asian nation of Tajikistan after an earthquake destroyed their homes in a mountainous region, officials said. No deaths were reported after the magnitude 5.1 quake struck the Pamir Mountains on January 2, the emergency situations and civil defense committee said.
Hundreds of mud-brick houses in several villages in the Gorno-Badakhshansky region were damaged.
The quake also cut electricity and communications and blocked the main road between the regional center of Vanch and nearby villages.