Sikkim recovering fast from 'quake ravages: Bhutia

Bhutia said people were helping each other to get their lives back on track.

"It's very, very unfortunate. The most-affected area is North Sikkim, about 64 kms from Gangtok. People in Sikkim are all together, helping everyone. We need to move on", he said.

Bhutia was with his own club, United Sikkim FC, in Gangtok when the 6.8 magnitude earthquake had struck Sikkim on Sunday.

The team had returned to their hometown after they failed to make it to the main round of the ongoing Federation Cup in Kolkata.

''The players are all safe,'' he said.

Nicknamed Sikkimese sniper, Bhutia said he would soon organise a charity match to raise funds for the earthquake victims of his home state, probably during the gap between the Federation Cup and the I-League.

''If not in Sikkim, we will do it in Kolkata,'' Bhutia, who is also the president of the Football Players' Association of India, told reporters here.

Incidentally, his team's coach Stanley Rozario had a narrow escape when he was travelling to Sikkim by a vehicle from Siliguri.

"After crossing the Bengal-Sikkim border, the vehicle started shaking. The mobile also stopped working as people were all returning following a landslide ahead," Rozario, who had to return to Siliguri, had said earlier.