Five Days Among Death And Misery
By: Sukhi Ch.
Tags: Earthquake, Pakistan, Kashmir, Life, Death

Five Days Among Death And Misery

I know natural disasters leave marks but I did not know those marks will be so deep

Image by Dawn

If you were old enough in 2005 then you might remember that there was a horrible earthquake in Pakistan on 8th October 2005, that killed thousands of people.

The Pakistani government’s official death toll as of November 2005 stood at 87,350 although it is estimated that the death toll could reach over 100,000. Approximately 138,000 were injured and over 3.5 million rendered homeless.

Kashmir was almost 90% ruined. I was coming back from my granny’s village to my home in the city. I was on the bus with my grandpa. The road we were traveling on is on the riverside of Jhelum river. I was on the window side and saw the river tearing from the center and red muddy water erupted. The houses on the other side of the river were falling in the river. Just like cups would fall if you tilt a tray.

The road got blocked in front of us so we walked to my home on foot fearing what we might find there. almost all the buildings on the way were destroyed. Reaching home we found a big pile of stones instead of the house. But before we would freak out my mother saw us and told us that everyone was safe and all the people from the neighborhood were in a nearby graveyard because houses were not safe.

We spent the day in the graveyard. It was not the first earthquake for us and we were used to earthquakes but this time it was so strong and different. It was not feeling like it was over. The earth beneath us was behaving like a living creature as if it was breathing under us. There were many aftershocks all day long.

All-day long people kept bringing their dead ones to the graveyard. It was Ramzan and we were all fasting. In the evening my mother sent me to bring water from some house that was still standing. But all the houses were open and none had anyone inside. It was like those post-apocalyptic movies where suddenly there are no humans left. I went to a house and filled the water bottle. Everything in the house was left as it was. There was food in the fridge. Unwashed dishes in the sink and beds unmade.

Some neighbors who had grocery shops somehow recovered food items from the remains of their shops and cooked food for everyone. We were all asked to move to a school ground to eat. It was dusk by then. We had just sat to eat when a man came in with a dead baby in his arms. He was crying and said, “Would anyone say my daughter’s funeral prayers with me.” It was so heartbreaking.

At night heavy rain started. There Was an under-construction shop nearby. We went in to avoid the rain. Some people had tents and they were full of people too. In our shop, there was a woman whose leg was broken. Her cries of pain I can never forget. There were many aftershocks during the night too.

In the morning the rain stopped and we moved to the playground of my old school. The school building was also collapsed and there were still girls alive inside and their families were outside unable to do anything. After some hours another aftershock and there were no more sounds from inside the building.

There was no help from the outside world because roads were blocked and there were no telephone or cell phone signals. No electricity or even radio signals. We had no idea if the world even knew about our condition or not.

In the afternoon army helicopters started coming in and the rescue operation started in the city. Muzaffarabad (my hometown) has a great number of the Pakistani army in it.

The school ground was filling with people coming from nearby villages in the hopes of food and shelter. There were families with their dead ones without finding enough people to dig the graves and bury them. People were digging graves all day long that day too so people had to wait for tools or places to bury.

The army guys came to the school but confirming that no one was alive under it, they decided to delay the digging there because they had to rescue the living people from under many other buildings.

There was a young man who was alone trying to break the concrete roof of the collapsed building like a crazy man. He kept doing that till the army finally came to dig the dead from the building after a few days. I later found out that his fiancee was a teacher in the school. When finally her dead body was recovered, she was unrecognizable, but he recognized her by her yellow clothes that she was wearing that day.

That night we slept in the playground under the sky along with hundreds of others. The next day more soldiers came and even UN forces came to take part in the rescue missions. They gave people food, tents, and blankets. By the third day, there was a smell spreading in the city. The smell of dead bodies. It rained again that day. Some relatives walked for 50 Km to reach the city from my granny’s village and we got to know that the family in the village was safe but homes were destroyed there too.

All the death and pain around me had numbed my mind by then and I don’t clearly remember the last two days. But by the 5th day, the army had cleared the roads and we were able to take a bus and go to some relatives in the safe areas. The road going towards the collapsed city was jam-packed with trucks of supplies and ambulances. There were many doctors who had filled their own vehicles with as many medical supplies as possible. There were busses full of volunteers. The vehicles were so many that in all 130 kilometers they were going bumper to bumper.

When we reached Islamabad, life was going on as if nothing has changed. It was so odd. They were even playing music on buses and vans. In those five days, I could not cry even once because I was in shock. I would wake up screaming many times in the night. After reaching my cousin’s house they took me to a therapist and after almost one month I started crying and then I cried for hours.

I know natural disasters leave marks but I did not know those marks will be so deep. It’s been 15 years, the city was built again but I have no memories left there. My school, college, home, everything got destroyed and right after the earthquake I was married and moved to Lahore. I feel like a stranger in my hometown now.