A True Slice of Hell

Riding for Education
Stephen McCutcheon
Thu 8 Dec 2005 09:04
Lat: 33:33.000000
Long: 73:21.000000
 
A True Slice of Hell
 
8th December 2005
 
A true slice of HellThousands of tents seemingly erupted from nowhere. Spanning the road and stretching for over twenty kilometers from Gardhi Habibullah to Balakot where a slice of hell truly existed on this Earth. It was nighttime when I arrived there.

For me the Earthquake was little more than a tremor in Gujanwala, but to the people of Balakot it was something else. Most couldn’t describe the experience. Within a few seconds only the world literally collapsed around them. Dust filled the air and their lives changed forever. A local doctor from the town’s leprosy hospital gave a better picture when I later interviewed him. He described waves that rippled through the earth, causing immediate head injuries, broken bones and lacerations. The river completely dried up as a huge landslide blocked its path for seven minutes and the water that came after was filthy with dirt and the remains of any life that got caught in its path.

Life in Balakot

I stayed at the relief camp of Sardad Rural Support Program (SRSP), a support organization aimed at developing people’s lives through guidance and training. Almost 1500 people survived there. Baba Farooq was the man running the camp in Balakot. He was local and had worked in the area all his life. He was humble and a genuinely respected figure. I valued his opinion. The mares were stabled at an army remount depot for the few days we were in town.

On my first day in the town Baba gave me an overview of the situation there at the time. The most pressing issue was a lack of food staples like rice, dal, tea, sugar and milk. Every day persons from 15 separate villages come to SRSP to demand more provisions. Many have been supplied but still they come. There is little sanitation facilities in the town and most of the population do their business next to the river. However women don’t have such a luxury. Due to the concept of Purda women have been unable to leave their tents, thus for one month and 22 days no woman has bathed. Rehabilitating people has been difficult. Seventy percent of people from four Union Councils immigrated into Balakot city, mixing castes and generating friction. A new camp was recently opened consisting of the highest quality Turkish ‘winterised’ tents but nobody would settle there because of the mixed families (i.e. castes). In our camp, 60% of people were local to the area making it easier to rehabilitate them as they are nearer to their homes.

On a later walk through of the city that day, my diary says; ” the river is a raging torrent washing through the collapsed remains of houses hotels and shops. The city mosque completely collapsed in on itself but people are still worshipping on the roof and washing underneath. The hill opposite looks like wild fires have decimated it. The city looks bombed. It is terrible.”

There were stories of desperation and unknowing despair. One man ran inside his house to find both his sons trapped under pillars of the house. Both were losing blood rapidly and he couldn’t save them. So he killed them both and jumped in the river.

However, these were the stories that we all heard about on the news and it was the stories of survival and how people helped each other that I wanted to film. I wanted to show the reality of life in the Earthquake area beyond the news and look at amazing ability of these people to survive this tragedy.

  • There was the story of the Pepsi factory owner who provided unlimited free Pepsi and 7up to the nearby population immediately after the Earthquake. The water was too contaminated.
  • Mr. Muktar Hussain, owner of a transport company, arranged two trucks of medicines within days through his immediate family. Over the next few weeks he organized 26 more trucks of aid from across the country through his business contacts.
  • Mr. Farooq Luqmani was the chief elder of lower Nara village. Among many things he organized a collection from locals and a spring water pipeline was laid to supply the whole village.
Words

Rehabilitation is the main issue now. As is usual in Pakistan things are often said but never fulfilled. The Government has offered each of the Earthquake survivors 25,000Rs (about ?50) and has promised a further 100,000Rs plus depending on the amount of damage to a property. It’s difficult to say if this obligation is being met properly. The president promised that army officers would survey each and every residence to estimate the amount of compensation needed. In village Nara (adjacent to Balakot) those officials had yet to arrive almost eight weeks after the disaster.

What impressed me the most in Balakot was the practicality of the people. All through the main bazaars were businesses opened within the ruins of older ones. Yet all the people I spoke to told of need to get back on with their lives. There has been a raft of free handouts but no moves made to employ the skills of the people in any reconstruction. Most are taking matters into their own hands. Through the devastation of the old markets hired labour was being used to sledgehammer through the ‘ceilings’ of former businesses so that rubble could be cleared from inside and processions retrieved. Yet to the credit of the Government a new school and hospital were being reconstructed in the town. The school was interesting because it was a huge domed structure based on an Earthquake proof design used in Afghanistan .

A new settlement

Manzoor was my guide over the old mule trails from Balakot to Mansehra

SRSP was a local organization which meant that it could react quickly to the needs of local people and thus rehabilitate them quickly. Kaghan Development Organization (KDO) was another such institution. Originally I’d been destined to the visit KDO schools throughout Kaghan valley but due to the Earthquake I had lost touch with Gulam Jilani who heads the group. - SPO had originally put us in contact together. Through co-incidence or fate (I shall never know) we then met at SRSP’s camp and arrangements were made to visit the KDO camp, twenty kilometers to the South near to Mansehra.

SRSP provided me with a guide and we struck out along some old mule trails heading for the camp. It was a terrible journey. The track was steep with little footing and it soon began to cut through some narrow rock gullies. The mares both slid and almost fell and as soon I could, I directed us back onto the main road before camping for the night next to a convenient haystack for the animals. We had left Azad (free) Kashmir .

When we arrived at the camp, it was late the following morning but the camp was worth the hike. As I’ve already explained Purda is an extremely important concept in Pakistan . Most people in rural Pakistan live in isolated villages where most of the occupants are family members. This means that women can come and go freely in accordance with the Islamic concept of Purda. The lack of privacy in relief camps is one of the biggest issues for its occupants and heightened tensions cause problems.

Purda is a must due to our religion.. to save our ladies from the irrelevant.”

Gulam Jilani, Founder of KDO

Battal High School was completely flattened by the Oct. 08 ?€?zalzalla?€? (Earthquake) along with 21 boys.

KDO’s camp seemed to solve that problem. At the time of the Earthquake members of Gulam Jilani’s Mogul caste (family) pleaded with him to set up a camp that would only cater to their relations. He did. There are 81 families (450 people) living at the camp in Batrar village. Immediate families lived in clusters of 15 or so tents as in a normal Kaghan ‘village.’ It took most of the people three days to walk from the upper Kaghan valley down to Batrar and many brought their goats, cattle and sheep with them. The daily lives of these people is undoubtedly better than the cramped conditions of the international and army relief operations, but Gulam is still fighting to achieve what he has.

At first he was reluctant to even let us film in the camp environ due to the presence of family women. The men and children we eventually filmed were generally happy to be where they were. Once spring comes and the people can return to their homes their rehabilitation will be much easier. They already have their flocks with them and the trauma created by the Earthquake will be easier to bear. Many are already keen to return to work but their immediate priority was to remain with their families until the Winter eased.

Plans

My plan had originally been to cross the Kaghan Valley to Chilas and cut over 150 kms from my journey. This might have still been possible. But at the time I was in Balakot the Kaghan road was blocked by landslides. The rumour mill also seems to indicate that it wouldn’t open. Scrapping any plans otherwise I continued onto the infamous Karakorum Highway (KKH). From the KDO camp there was another little shortcut and before I knew it I was stood on the KKH.

There was a sense of finality in that moment. This was the road that would carry be hook, line and sinker to Kashgar in China. There was no more looking back. The final phases were coming to a close but I knew that the hardest part was yet to come. I was right.

Despite December the KKH had a very green feel to it. The mares plodded easily next to a burbling stream and I remember just smiling as we headed North into the wastes of Northern Pakistan . Nothing could dampen this feeling. Not the ever staring hordes of locals, nor the shouting kids or college students who want to know your life story in five minutes.

The ‘Italian hospital’ Mansehra

Over the next few days we filmed at three important locations. All were relevant to paint a true picture of the Earthquake’s affect today and yesterday. First we called at the Italian Hospital in Mansehra. The rapid response unit of the Italian Government is called Dipartimento della Professione Civile and it has a worldwide reputation for making a difference in disaster zones. It was only operating at half capacity when we arrived but in the immediate aftermath of the Earthquake it handled the bulk of the serious emergencies. The hospital now only handles first aid cases. What was most interesting was the way that the Italians have had to adapt to life in Pakistan . Female patients cannot be treated by male Italian doctors so a separate segregation policy had to be adapted (incidentally, the hospital has only delivered two newborns during its operation. Local women prefer to deliver their babies in Government hospitals that they ‘trust’). Pakistani’s have also found it hard adapting to the rigid visiting hours at the hospital. At the start many tried to enter into the Emergency room during surgery and had to be curtly escorted out. The hospital operates predominantly through Pakistani doctors and it has proven a great opportunity to transfer new skills and working techniques between the two nationalities.

Battal High School

Second port of call was at Battal High School which was a truly saddening visit at a site completely demolished by the Earthquake 8 weeks ago. Finally, I reached the ‘boundary’ of the Earthquake area at Battagram, lying at the far North of the fault line (Muzzaffarabad lies towards the middle). For the last time I stayed in a relief camp. Each time has been unique. This was to.

For complete report why not visit Battal High School

A model Relief camp?

Medan Camp one and two was set up by the army with the assistance of UNICEF. In many ways this was a model camp of around 450 families. Each tent was neatly spaced from its neighbour and toilets were positioned off to the side near to the giant refillable water container. In the distance children’s laughter carried from the camp school.

The endless tents of Medan camp, Battagram stretch away to the horizon

It was a complete contrast to the Dewan camp at Noral Stadium. The camp management allowed me to pitch my tent within the camp in-between two families. At 0730 both families stirred and the sounds of babies crying woke me up. The toilets were clean, with little arrows on where to put your bum! The women were outside washing their pots when I emerged. These people had the best facilities available but still they had no privacy and this has caused problems. The camp management told me about the fights between different castes and the real danger of fire spreading between the tents. One man apparently set fire to his tent in stove incident, burning his two children alive.

In an emergency the no. 1 need is for shelter and in a culture as traditional as Pakistan ’s I deeply admire these people. Everybody is equal here. Nobody is better than anybody else. Persons who have lost everything that is near and dear still manage to survive and with a practicality that we could all learn from. How would it be in the West? We might have insurance and various protections etc… but could we recover from the same fate as easily??

Note : This diary entry is based on my experiences that I hope will give the reader a different aspect to the Earthquake area than they may have read elsewhere. For further commentary you might like to check out the Earthquake section

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