MANSEHRA: Survivors of the Oct 2005 devastating earthquake marked the 17th anniversary of the natural disaster in Balakot tehsil here on Saturday complaining about the government’s apathy to their misery, especially delay in their rehabilitation.

They along with assistant commissioner Basharat Bibi, officials of the education department and schoolchildren gathered at the mass grave of 70 students, who were killed by the 7.5 magnitude earthquake, and offered Fateha for them.

The participants also observed a one-minute silence for the deceased.

The Quran Khwani was held at the Government High School, which was also destroyed by the strong earthquake, which killed over 17,000 people, including women and children.

The assistant commissioner laid a wreath at the mass grave.

The traders led by Anwar Khan and Danish Iqbal also visited the mass grave and offered Fateha.

Unlike the past, shops and markets remained open as prayer leader of the central mosque Maulana Qazi Khalil had announced that the traders would do business as usual to protest the government’s apathy to the misery of earthquake survivors.

He had said both federal and provincial governments as well as the region’s lawmakers were indifferent to protests and strikes by the families, who lost everything to the 2005 earthquake but had yet to be compensated.

Former tehsil nazim Junaid Qasim told reporters that disaster survivors hadn’t got plots in the New Balakot City housing project though the government had spent over Rs13 billion on land acquisition and development.

He also complained that around 100 schools in Balakot and other parts of Mansehra district awaited reconstruction and therefore, students had to attend classes in rented buildings or open spaces.

AFGHANS HELD: The Baffa police on Saturday arrested an Afghan national along with his father for killing his wife in Gandhian area.

SHO of the Baffa police station Aurangzeb Khan told reporters that Mohammad Malang killed his 20-year-old wife on Friday with the help of his father, Muqam Khan, and dumped the body in a tent.

He said the police had booked the two under sections 302, 109 and 201 of the Pakistan Penal Code but the reason for murder had yet to be ascertained.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2022