They’ve run out of shrouds
The rubble of the Government Girls Secondary School in the Chamm locality, Garhi Habibullah, is yet to be photographed by a leading political heavyweight or the district government/administration or even the much-publicised military’s relief teams.
No one came to offer condolences, make (false) promises of early rescue operations for their trapped loved ones except for the military helicopter hovering over many hundred feet high in the sky. The disaster-hit population knows this and only seeks help from Allah.
For those who missed the story on Saturday, the girls school building collapsed with some 400 students and teachers buried underneath in the initial moments of the quake. A local contractor’s broken-down bulldozer sitting at the mouth of the debris blocking the manual evacuation of the rubble speaks volumes for the speedy relief assistance loudly claimed by the powers-that-be.
Some 750 odd students are enrolled in the government girls school with eight schoolteachers, a headmistress, two clerks and two watchmen on the payroll. Eyewitnesses, ironically parents of the buried girls, told The News that the school went down with a big bang unable to absorb the initial jolts of Saturday morning.
An entire two-storey block—housing some 350 girls—was razed amid huge clouds of dust. The five classrooms filled with students as well as teachers disappeared in a matter of less than a minute. The other parts of the school too were badly damaged but the majority of souls could find their way to safety.
The bang followed by heart-piercing screams attracted some 500 people, most of whom being the poor parents. “It was panic all around,” said the school watchman. “I would never forget the screams of the angelic girls,” the eyewitness said who had a narrow escape. “I never felt so helpless in my entire life…one of my daughters had escaped while the other, Maria, was down under the debris and I had no way to rescue her,” said Syed Zakir Hussain.
He could hear his daughter say “Abu, Abu” giving him a fair idea where to break the concrete roof. Zakir was joined by other local people to widen an existing crack and finally rescuing her second daughter unharmed.
But not every parent was so lucky. The combined self-help effort lasted till the rain started in the disaster-hit region as if a 7.6 Richter scale quake was not enough. The fasting men had so far rescued six girls including the female teacher and taken out some 135 badly bruised bodies of girls.
The school watchman says, “Some 250 girls are still trapped in the rubble.” There is little hope that anyone would still be breathing as the concrete above has virtually blocked the air-supply to the ground section. On top of it all, tremors occur here after every 30 minutes on average as if the nature’s expectation were still not met.
Sunday was the day of funerals. Right from the suburbs of the sprawling and less affected Abbotabad city to anywhere towards the north and northwest in Pakistan graves are being dug and Janaza prayers offered.
Other villages like Batal and Balimang, 30-odd minutes drive south of Mansehra city along the Karakorum Highway ahead of Chattar plains, reflect repeat of a similar tragedy. When this naive reporter asked as to what was the most immediate need of the Mansehra people, aging Samandar Khan said, “Send some cotton Latha so that we could bury our dead with respect.” Literally, they have run out of the burial cloth as some of the inhabitants said they buried their loved ones in blankets, bed sheets and even in the clothes they died in.
On the other hand, the foreign aid agencies have geared up efforts to send blankets, tents, medicine kits, food, water purification tablets and water containers. The razed markets all over the localities visited by this correspondent too wore a dreadful look. Foodstuff and grains were scattered with packets of tea, cigarettes lying close by but soaked in rainwater.
An old lady, Fatima, said, “There is no option but to eat whatever is available as the shops have run out of stocks and we cannot leave our dead decay in the open and move to safer locations.” Those who have no one to pull out from the rubble have moved to relatives in safer homes in Mansehra, Abbotabad and Haripur districts.
The temperature falls as the daylight fades and the night falls but for the fear of horrible death amid recurring tremors, no one feels like sleeping indoors. Ismail said, “We try to work with our bare hands and dig holes in the concrete slabs or remove debris to find the dead or living.” He says most of them can’t sleep as the innocent but badly crushed bodies and faces of the victims don’t fade from their minds. “Above all, fear of death refreshes itself with every tremor,” he says while reciting the prayers and murmuring Allah-o-Akbar.
For the people of the north, the disaster has come back less than a year after the area was shaken by very heavy rains and snowfall. The government perhaps is too busy learning lessons from its persistent failures in disaster relief. But Islamabad claims, “We care,” Source: The News
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