Five days have passed since a devastating earthquake shook Nepal and its neighbours on April 25. Pakistani families were among the evacuees that were airlifted from the ruined capital, Kathmandu, on a Pakistan Air Force C1-30 aircraft. As they recuperate after days of sleeping outdoors and making the arduous journey back to Pakistan, Dawn speaks to the few who made it back, as well as one person who is still in Nepal, and asks them about the ordeal.

Aalia Batool, housewife

My husband works at the Pakistani embassy in Khatmandu. The earthquake hit at 11:56am on a Saturday morning, which is the only holiday in Nepal. I had just woken up and my husband and children were sleeping. I remember standing by the sink when it began to shake violently.

By the time I made it out of the bathroom, my husband and children were up. The cupboards had shaken open and things were falling out and clattering on the floor. We were on the second floor so we started to head towards the stairs. The whole house was shifting under our feet and we held on to each other. I felt dizzy and could feel the tremors in my body. The staircase was also swaying from side to side and we made our way down with great difficultly.

Aawaiss Rawn, student

We lived on the second floor of an apartment building. My parents and I climbed down just 46 stairs but it felt like it took 46 hours.

Dozens of men, women and children had gathered outside the building, all in their night suits and most without shoes. Ten minutes later, there was another aftershock and we ended up waiting outside for hours. When I went back upstairs to retrieve a mobile phone, there was another tremor.

Around five in the evening it began to get cold and we started gathering supplies such as water and blankets. I walked to a store, where prices had gone through the roof in just five hours; I bought a dozen bananas for 1,000 Nepalese rupees.

As we were loading supplies in the car to go to a friend’s house, a man ran towards us carrying an unconscious woman. They were both covered in debris. He begged us to drive them to the hospital, so we took them with us.

As we drove, the devastation we saw was unbelievable. There was hardly any space for the car to pass as buildings on either side had collapsed onto the street. At the hospital, it was a different kind of hell. Everywhere I looked, there were injured people, bleeding, crying and covered in debris.

Ahmar Ismail, director of Pakistan’s Saarc Secretariat in Khatmandu

As I ran out of the house with my family, I saw the ground move in waves. The children were especially scared. The aftershocks kept coming, initially 30 minutes apart, then an hour, the four and then twelve. It was unsafe inside so we camped outdoors for days with friends and neighbours.

We dragged some mattresses and blankets outside but there was continuous rain and it would get cold at night. Every time we would start falling asleep, we would be woken by the tremors. The water and electricity supply was suspended so we had to search for water. In the Mehrganj area, where we lived, there are a number of hotels and most structures are makeshift. Cement is not commonly used so there were a lot of collapsed buildings.

There are about 25 staff members at the Pakistani Embassy in Nepal and most are still here because a lot still needs to be done.

Shayan Idrees, student

We were evacuated on a PAF C-130 that brought aid from Pakistan. The Khatmandu airport was teeming with people trying to leave the country and aid workers arriving from abroad. We got to the airport at around 9am and waited for hours before the plane took-off.

The plane was also chock full; some got seats but most were on the floor, holding on to their luggage. On the way to Islamabad, two of the C-130 broke down so the air-conditioning had to be turned off and it became unbearably hot. While I am happy to be back in Pakistan, I am worried about my father, who had to stay back in Khatmandu. We begged him to come with us because the aftershocks were still coming and communication networks were down. But almost nobody’s dad came back with them, the plane was full of women and children.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2015

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