Preamble
The 2005 earthquake had a death toll of 75000 people as per the official government figure. It was a horrible natural disaster and while it struck we were at University at KPK(fortunately far enough from the epicenter not to have any severe accidents on campus). Classes were suspended and the Rector of GIK Institute helped the students send a relief group to the earthquake affected regions. An account of how everything felt at our campus can be found here(written by Basim a good friend of mine). I also wrote a brief account of the first day of our student expedition below. Unfortunately I didn't document the rest of the days. This was written around a decade ago on another blog, the reason I'm pasting it here is because its one such experience that deserves revisiting and contemplation.
Day – 1 Part – 1 [The Journey]
A weird sort of anxiety kept me up at the night until sehri on the day we had to depart for Balakot to dispense medical and food supplies. At sehri I met G2 at the mess table and he gave us brief idea about the camp that they had already set up the day before and the situation near Balakot. He had some steroids with him that were given to patients when hope gets too slim. The purpose of the steroids is to boost up bodily functions in one last effort to save the victim. The previous night, volunteers were scurrying about collecting money for the earthquake victims. With their tireless efforts, 1.5 Lac rupees(approx $2730) had been raised. After sehri, the volunteers started gathering in front of Hostel #2. Out of all those who didn’t leave gik for home, a large part signed up and by 7:00 am we had full 2 vans stocked and ready to go.
After leaving Topi at GIKI, we followed the route through Haripur and Abbotabad. It was at Abbotabad where we started seeing the effects of the quake which were an occasional collapsed building. It was there that when our van split up and we stacked up supplies, which contained bottles of water, biscuits, glucose and chick peas. It took us quite some time to get loaded and we moved further on towards Balakot.
We then got stuck in a huge traffic jam. There were vans and trucks, a lot of them filled with food and relief material. Hallian(a friend of mine) pointed out that there are a lot of nice people in this world which made me think that [This is just my opinion] maybe a disaster on such a nation is a blessing in disguise because it forces a lot of people to help and earn good deeds, but then again I may be mistaken for it is easier to deprive someone else of something when you are in desperate need of it.
It was here that I happened to notice some injured people like children with bandages on their hands but nothing really severe. Little did we know about the squalid and grotesque scenarios that lay ahead of us. A considerable amount of time later, the traffic had resumed its flow as the army had managed to get the path up and operational, by clearing up the landslide.
It was then that we got stuck in an even larger traffic jam than the one before it. Upon further investigation, we found out that there was a bridge up ahead that was causing a bottleneck because one side of it had to be kept open for traffic coming back which consisted mainly of ambulances. Some people went to the base of the river, performed their wudhu(ablution) and started praying, whereas others(myself included) wasted time talking.
Day – 1 Part – 2 [Supply Distribution]
Once our vans crossed the bridge we caught speed again and headed on towards our destination. Without further let or hindrance, we reached a village near Balakot. We had a hard time finding a way in because the mobile phone signals were down to zero and the only information we had was that there was a suspension bridge on the right of the road. Boxer(Mohammad Shoaib Farooqi) and another guy(I am forgetting the name. It was sheri I think) went in and scouted the area in order to find the entrance of the bridge. The bridge was not large enough for our-hi aces [at least that’s what we thought] and we parked both of them close to it. Across the bridge we could see devastation, buildings that lay in ruin. In fact there was one dead or severely injured person being passed every minute in a charpoy across the bridge. It served as a sign of what was to come ahead. It was there that we decided to split up in order to maximize our efficiency. Chaudry, 4 Juniors and I went on with the supplies a man in a Suzuki mini-van helped us move the supplies across the bridge and to a small village. We asked him if he knew where our camp is and he said that he had very little time stopped near a village with the supplies. Once we stopped, people started gathering around us [I hope God forgives me for this comparison] just like insects gather around light. They started asking us what we brought and to distribute everything. We told them that we needed to find our camp first which offended them. They told us that only the rich people are entertained at the camps and they are a poor locality where people haven’t really given anything. When tension further mounted, they said that God is the one who gives and we should leave if we are not here to distribute. From their arguments, it was clear that they weren’t thinking rationally and I don’t blame them for that. The driver then agreed to take us further and dropped us at another collection of houses. People also started gathering around us here. This place was worse than the one before it because it had its share of injured. The people had the same reaction over there but we told them that we want a little patience on their side and after a little time we started distributing some water but only to the injured. One of the locals came and supported our argument. It was here that we tried calling G2 who was back in the hostel, I eventually managed to get the message to Hatim to get G2 on the phone and call back, but there was a problem with Mobilink that. After quite some time, Majid Diyal met up with us and told us to start the distribution.
Distribution was no mere task. We had desperate people and we needed to make sure that everything was being distributed properly without anyone getting hoarding up stuff or going deprived. We started distributing the supplies and tried to make the locals get in proper queues (A very hard task indeed). It was only during the distribution that we realized that we should’ve brought more people with us to ensure a fairer distribution. A local and I went down with a couple of crates to the place where we had stopped first with the locals pissed off as us. They however did accept what little we had to offer. The general rule was one bottle of water and 2 tiki packs of biscuits per person. When there were two or three bottles left, a person came grabbed the box of water and ran downhill, it was too late when I noticed as he was quite far and I couldn’t desert the other stuff and go after him. It was then that I really started getting annoyed, but after a moment of pondering about it, I realized that I could not know that persons level of desperation so I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions earlier. After that I went up and got Chaudry and the folks to complete their distribution. When we distributed the stuff, we still had a few crates with us, containing some supplies for the camp. It was nightfall by then and the time, if my memory serves me correctly was around 6:30 pm.
Day – 1 Part – 3 [In search of the camp]
Once we were done distributing the rations that we brought along with us, it was time to get moving. We started walking in the general direction that Majid Diyal had indicated. On the way we distributed half the glaxose D to the people around us and all of the remaining water. The supplies were proving to be very heavy. We knew that the camp was 6 kilometers from where we were, but there was a lot of confusion regarding the directions. Moreover, most of us were worn-out and fatigued as we didn’t eat anything since sehri, but biscuits and we had been on our feet for quite a bit of time. One major dilemma that faced us was whether to go back to the vans or to head for the camp whose locations none of us knew. There were discussions regarding whether to split up and cover more ground or to stay together. Some of us even got the really improbable idea of being left behind. We resolved all these questions by voting. Together and to the camp was the verdict, so our little party of six started walking by the river downstream and miraculously everything turned out to be alright because there was a jeep carrying sharjoo(Abdul Basit) and Talha Yazadani on their way back from the camp and they confirmed the existence of the camp ahead along the same path. Around 3.5 kilometers in from where we started walking, I heard my name being called again and again and upon investigation I soon identified I to be Hallian’s voice. He was accompanied by some more juniors. We got him loaded with the luggage into a passing Suzuki minivan and we headed off for the camp on foot. It was then that we started seeing the macabre details. Collapsed houses, mosques, buildings made many of us nervous about the things the chain of events that led to this catastrophe. It was like a scene from a war movie, except there was no mortal enemy, just Mother Nature. We had to cross through knee deep water in the middle of the road because part of it went under water making it fit for mainly jeeps, even though Suzuki vans were passing every know and then, with considerable effort from the engine as well as pushes from other people. Not only were the buildings totaled but the roads were also severely damaged with huge cracks and crevices maybe 4 to 5 inches in widths running across them.
Day – 1 Part – 4 [The night at Nara]
I didn’t know that we at our destination when we actually reached the camp. It had no tents or roofing whatsoever. It was also quite late by then and getting really cold. The camp which was situated at a village called Nara contained one doctor, an assistant, clothing, medical supplies, food and a whole lot of other stuff all in the open. It turned out that a group of volunteer students from AIMC had initially set up the camp and we helped them and set our camp with theirs. The doctors had been here since 2 days without any salary on a voluntary basis, which was quite remarkable display of character on their behalf. This was just the kind of initiative that the locals needed. Every now and then locals would come and ask for the doctor, describe their condition and get treated. I met Shadman who had been there longer and he told me about an incident at a nearby school consisting of 4 floors which collapsed due to the quake killing 300 students. He also showed me a clock that fell down at the time of the quake that he had brought back with him that was stuck at the exact time of the earthquake(around 8:45 am) because its batteries had rolled out upon impact with the floor. He also told me about the people who came to the camp and in what condition, about the condition of the buildings, people & bodies. It was almost as gloomy as it could get when I met a person who was around. He wanted to use my mobile phone and I let him, but to no avail, the signals forced all the calls to be dropped. He told me that he was from a location that was situated uphill. Uphill may be an understatement as it was a rocky path that was probably at a 45 degree inclination. He described the condition of the people that had died and were suffering. There were lots of people that were too weak to make the descent. There were numerous fractured limbs. He came down with some of his friends with his aunt laid on a stretcher. When they brought her down the camp the chances of her survival were already fading. She died while receiving treatment. That is why he wanted to make the call to Islamabad. He wanted his aunt to be buried in Islamabad. This man had lost his brothers, sisters, cousins and most of his uncles and aunts up there. When I asked him if we should go up there, his reply was “You people are not familiar with the path, it is half an hour journey and a really steep incline [it should be stated here that a lot of the paths had been destroyed or severely damaged because of the quake]. You people took the time and listened to what I had to tell and I’m really grateful for that”.
Theeta(Imad Manzoor) and the folks had come really late that night to the camp; they were back at the university till noon collecting more funds from the faculty. Something that was quite a feat considering the sum they had collected. By that time we had Rupees 5 lac(approx $9100) for our relief project which were collected from various cities and from the Institute by Gikian volunteers.
Just about then, when the first signs of rain were eminent, we started work at the construction of a makeshift shelter for all the medical equipment. We took the metal roofing off a collapsed house and combined it with cloth and other materials to make a sort of a protective waterproof barrier for the medicine. Although it did not rain that night, this makeshift tent would serve the first aid shelter a lot the following day. After setting up the tent, all of us were really exhausted and fell asleep (or at least tried to) under the open sky and on earth strewn with rocks and pebbles. It made us realize about the conditions that the locals were putting up with. Due to the immense cold, most of us were having a tough time sleeping. Chaudry and I managed to get a sheet from someone and were able to cover waist up with it, but the moment I closed my eyes and reopened them seconds later, I was freezing and Chaudry had the sheet spun around him. He strikingly resembled a cocoon. So I started walking about and found Kalimi also wide awake and roaming around the camp, which comprised of around fifteen to seventeen people sleeping on the side of a road under the clear blue sky. He told me to sleep where he was sleeping under the warmth of a blanket and I savored the warmness that the blankets had to offer with every bit of gratitude. I re-awoke at 3:30 am and we set up a fire to keep warm. We didn’t need to gather wood for this fire as it was lit after breaking a charpoy. It kept us warm until there was light. Most of us decided not to keep a fast that day so that our activities aren’t hampered.
The 2005 earthquake had a death toll of 75000 people as per the official government figure. It was a horrible natural disaster and while it struck we were at University at KPK(fortunately far enough from the epicenter not to have any severe accidents on campus). Classes were suspended and the Rector of GIK Institute helped the students send a relief group to the earthquake affected regions. An account of how everything felt at our campus can be found here(written by Basim a good friend of mine). I also wrote a brief account of the first day of our student expedition below. Unfortunately I didn't document the rest of the days. This was written around a decade ago on another blog, the reason I'm pasting it here is because its one such experience that deserves revisiting and contemplation.
Day – 1 Part – 1 [The Journey]
A weird sort of anxiety kept me up at the night until sehri on the day we had to depart for Balakot to dispense medical and food supplies. At sehri I met G2 at the mess table and he gave us brief idea about the camp that they had already set up the day before and the situation near Balakot. He had some steroids with him that were given to patients when hope gets too slim. The purpose of the steroids is to boost up bodily functions in one last effort to save the victim. The previous night, volunteers were scurrying about collecting money for the earthquake victims. With their tireless efforts, 1.5 Lac rupees(approx $2730) had been raised. After sehri, the volunteers started gathering in front of Hostel #2. Out of all those who didn’t leave gik for home, a large part signed up and by 7:00 am we had full 2 vans stocked and ready to go.
After leaving Topi at GIKI, we followed the route through Haripur and Abbotabad. It was at Abbotabad where we started seeing the effects of the quake which were an occasional collapsed building. It was there that when our van split up and we stacked up supplies, which contained bottles of water, biscuits, glucose and chick peas. It took us quite some time to get loaded and we moved further on towards Balakot.
We then got stuck in a huge traffic jam. There were vans and trucks, a lot of them filled with food and relief material. Hallian(a friend of mine) pointed out that there are a lot of nice people in this world which made me think that [This is just my opinion] maybe a disaster on such a nation is a blessing in disguise because it forces a lot of people to help and earn good deeds, but then again I may be mistaken for it is easier to deprive someone else of something when you are in desperate need of it.
It was here that I happened to notice some injured people like children with bandages on their hands but nothing really severe. Little did we know about the squalid and grotesque scenarios that lay ahead of us. A considerable amount of time later, the traffic had resumed its flow as the army had managed to get the path up and operational, by clearing up the landslide.
It was then that we got stuck in an even larger traffic jam than the one before it. Upon further investigation, we found out that there was a bridge up ahead that was causing a bottleneck because one side of it had to be kept open for traffic coming back which consisted mainly of ambulances. Some people went to the base of the river, performed their wudhu(ablution) and started praying, whereas others(myself included) wasted time talking.
Day – 1 Part – 2 [Supply Distribution]
Once our vans crossed the bridge we caught speed again and headed on towards our destination. Without further let or hindrance, we reached a village near Balakot. We had a hard time finding a way in because the mobile phone signals were down to zero and the only information we had was that there was a suspension bridge on the right of the road. Boxer(Mohammad Shoaib Farooqi) and another guy(I am forgetting the name. It was sheri I think) went in and scouted the area in order to find the entrance of the bridge. The bridge was not large enough for our-hi aces [at least that’s what we thought] and we parked both of them close to it. Across the bridge we could see devastation, buildings that lay in ruin. In fact there was one dead or severely injured person being passed every minute in a charpoy across the bridge. It served as a sign of what was to come ahead. It was there that we decided to split up in order to maximize our efficiency. Chaudry, 4 Juniors and I went on with the supplies a man in a Suzuki mini-van helped us move the supplies across the bridge and to a small village. We asked him if he knew where our camp is and he said that he had very little time stopped near a village with the supplies. Once we stopped, people started gathering around us [I hope God forgives me for this comparison] just like insects gather around light. They started asking us what we brought and to distribute everything. We told them that we needed to find our camp first which offended them. They told us that only the rich people are entertained at the camps and they are a poor locality where people haven’t really given anything. When tension further mounted, they said that God is the one who gives and we should leave if we are not here to distribute. From their arguments, it was clear that they weren’t thinking rationally and I don’t blame them for that. The driver then agreed to take us further and dropped us at another collection of houses. People also started gathering around us here. This place was worse than the one before it because it had its share of injured. The people had the same reaction over there but we told them that we want a little patience on their side and after a little time we started distributing some water but only to the injured. One of the locals came and supported our argument. It was here that we tried calling G2 who was back in the hostel, I eventually managed to get the message to Hatim to get G2 on the phone and call back, but there was a problem with Mobilink that. After quite some time, Majid Diyal met up with us and told us to start the distribution.
Distribution was no mere task. We had desperate people and we needed to make sure that everything was being distributed properly without anyone getting hoarding up stuff or going deprived. We started distributing the supplies and tried to make the locals get in proper queues (A very hard task indeed). It was only during the distribution that we realized that we should’ve brought more people with us to ensure a fairer distribution. A local and I went down with a couple of crates to the place where we had stopped first with the locals pissed off as us. They however did accept what little we had to offer. The general rule was one bottle of water and 2 tiki packs of biscuits per person. When there were two or three bottles left, a person came grabbed the box of water and ran downhill, it was too late when I noticed as he was quite far and I couldn’t desert the other stuff and go after him. It was then that I really started getting annoyed, but after a moment of pondering about it, I realized that I could not know that persons level of desperation so I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions earlier. After that I went up and got Chaudry and the folks to complete their distribution. When we distributed the stuff, we still had a few crates with us, containing some supplies for the camp. It was nightfall by then and the time, if my memory serves me correctly was around 6:30 pm.
Day – 1 Part – 3 [In search of the camp]
Once we were done distributing the rations that we brought along with us, it was time to get moving. We started walking in the general direction that Majid Diyal had indicated. On the way we distributed half the glaxose D to the people around us and all of the remaining water. The supplies were proving to be very heavy. We knew that the camp was 6 kilometers from where we were, but there was a lot of confusion regarding the directions. Moreover, most of us were worn-out and fatigued as we didn’t eat anything since sehri, but biscuits and we had been on our feet for quite a bit of time. One major dilemma that faced us was whether to go back to the vans or to head for the camp whose locations none of us knew. There were discussions regarding whether to split up and cover more ground or to stay together. Some of us even got the really improbable idea of being left behind. We resolved all these questions by voting. Together and to the camp was the verdict, so our little party of six started walking by the river downstream and miraculously everything turned out to be alright because there was a jeep carrying sharjoo(Abdul Basit) and Talha Yazadani on their way back from the camp and they confirmed the existence of the camp ahead along the same path. Around 3.5 kilometers in from where we started walking, I heard my name being called again and again and upon investigation I soon identified I to be Hallian’s voice. He was accompanied by some more juniors. We got him loaded with the luggage into a passing Suzuki minivan and we headed off for the camp on foot. It was then that we started seeing the macabre details. Collapsed houses, mosques, buildings made many of us nervous about the things the chain of events that led to this catastrophe. It was like a scene from a war movie, except there was no mortal enemy, just Mother Nature. We had to cross through knee deep water in the middle of the road because part of it went under water making it fit for mainly jeeps, even though Suzuki vans were passing every know and then, with considerable effort from the engine as well as pushes from other people. Not only were the buildings totaled but the roads were also severely damaged with huge cracks and crevices maybe 4 to 5 inches in widths running across them.
Day – 1 Part – 4 [The night at Nara]
I didn’t know that we at our destination when we actually reached the camp. It had no tents or roofing whatsoever. It was also quite late by then and getting really cold. The camp which was situated at a village called Nara contained one doctor, an assistant, clothing, medical supplies, food and a whole lot of other stuff all in the open. It turned out that a group of volunteer students from AIMC had initially set up the camp and we helped them and set our camp with theirs. The doctors had been here since 2 days without any salary on a voluntary basis, which was quite remarkable display of character on their behalf. This was just the kind of initiative that the locals needed. Every now and then locals would come and ask for the doctor, describe their condition and get treated. I met Shadman who had been there longer and he told me about an incident at a nearby school consisting of 4 floors which collapsed due to the quake killing 300 students. He also showed me a clock that fell down at the time of the quake that he had brought back with him that was stuck at the exact time of the earthquake(around 8:45 am) because its batteries had rolled out upon impact with the floor. He also told me about the people who came to the camp and in what condition, about the condition of the buildings, people & bodies. It was almost as gloomy as it could get when I met a person who was around. He wanted to use my mobile phone and I let him, but to no avail, the signals forced all the calls to be dropped. He told me that he was from a location that was situated uphill. Uphill may be an understatement as it was a rocky path that was probably at a 45 degree inclination. He described the condition of the people that had died and were suffering. There were lots of people that were too weak to make the descent. There were numerous fractured limbs. He came down with some of his friends with his aunt laid on a stretcher. When they brought her down the camp the chances of her survival were already fading. She died while receiving treatment. That is why he wanted to make the call to Islamabad. He wanted his aunt to be buried in Islamabad. This man had lost his brothers, sisters, cousins and most of his uncles and aunts up there. When I asked him if we should go up there, his reply was “You people are not familiar with the path, it is half an hour journey and a really steep incline [it should be stated here that a lot of the paths had been destroyed or severely damaged because of the quake]. You people took the time and listened to what I had to tell and I’m really grateful for that”.
Theeta(Imad Manzoor) and the folks had come really late that night to the camp; they were back at the university till noon collecting more funds from the faculty. Something that was quite a feat considering the sum they had collected. By that time we had Rupees 5 lac(approx $9100) for our relief project which were collected from various cities and from the Institute by Gikian volunteers.
Just about then, when the first signs of rain were eminent, we started work at the construction of a makeshift shelter for all the medical equipment. We took the metal roofing off a collapsed house and combined it with cloth and other materials to make a sort of a protective waterproof barrier for the medicine. Although it did not rain that night, this makeshift tent would serve the first aid shelter a lot the following day. After setting up the tent, all of us were really exhausted and fell asleep (or at least tried to) under the open sky and on earth strewn with rocks and pebbles. It made us realize about the conditions that the locals were putting up with. Due to the immense cold, most of us were having a tough time sleeping. Chaudry and I managed to get a sheet from someone and were able to cover waist up with it, but the moment I closed my eyes and reopened them seconds later, I was freezing and Chaudry had the sheet spun around him. He strikingly resembled a cocoon. So I started walking about and found Kalimi also wide awake and roaming around the camp, which comprised of around fifteen to seventeen people sleeping on the side of a road under the clear blue sky. He told me to sleep where he was sleeping under the warmth of a blanket and I savored the warmness that the blankets had to offer with every bit of gratitude. I re-awoke at 3:30 am and we set up a fire to keep warm. We didn’t need to gather wood for this fire as it was lit after breaking a charpoy. It kept us warm until there was light. Most of us decided not to keep a fast that day so that our activities aren’t hampered.
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