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| Sunday, 23 October 2005 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Pakistan quake refugees pour out of disaster zone Pakistan, (AFP) Hundreds of refugees fleeing the town of Balakot, which was almost completely destroyed by the October 8 earthquake, arrive here every day as survivors seek shelter from the approaching winter. They come on foot or crowded into buses, carrying whatever they have managed to salvage from the rubble or gather from relief agencies, and say prayers in the town's madrassas, or Islamic schools. One such survivor, Mirzan, said he had walked for two days with his young son to reach Mansera, 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of the Pakistani capital Islamabad. He said he was looking for his brother who had also "lost everything" when the 7.6-magnitude quake struck on October 8, killing more than 51,000 people across northern Pakistan and Kashmir. Brandishing his identity card, he went to an aid distribution point to get the bare basics for survival, but left empty handed. "I lost everything over there (in Balakot), and almost all the population has left," he said. In front of the main hospital in Mansera, itself cracked and damaged by the quake, a small tent city has been set up to welcome the stragglers from Balakot. Even so the authorities seem overwhelmed by the influx of desperate refugees. "Since October 8 more than 35,000 people have migrated from the region of Balakot. They are staying with their relatives or in tents and if they can't find anywhere to stay they go on to other towns," said a doctor at the hospital. "Their needs are too enormous to meet," he said, as children with broken bones and open wounds wailed with pain. At the entrance to the camp, an old woman waits to be told where she can sleep. Hours after arriving on a bus with her two nephews, she says she already wants to go home. "Our sister lives in Mansera and we came here to find her," said Khaton, one of the old woman's nephews. "We will never go back to Balakot," said the other. All around, injured people lie in the open air, protecting themselves from the sun with old newspapers or examining the X-Rays of their fractures. Parents, themselves injured, carry bandaged children in their arms. And they continue to arrive, some pushing mules with bundles of belongings strapped to their backs. Almost every space in the town is already occupied. |
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