SIALKOT: “It is our destiny to brace rains and floods in sawan, bhadoon and bullets and bombs during the rest of the year,” Chunnan Din, a 75-years-old resident of Bajwat, tells a grandson at a relief camp set up by Rangers at Chaprar, a village some 20km from Sialkot along the working boundary.

The elderly man was eager to return to hometown to take care of the graves of his ancestors and Amanat, the grandson, was attempting to convince him to wait for another couple of days.

Also read: Flood of miseries as people return home

Mr Din was reluctant to leave his place when a Rangers team reached there on Sept 5 to evacuate marooned villagers. The grandchildren got him boarded the boat with the condition that they would return soon after the water started receding.

“After all we have to return to our place. The sooner the better,” responded Mr Din when his grandson asked him to wait till the water completely recedes. “The graves will cave in by then and crows and other birds…” said the old man while trying to get up from the floor with the help of a bamboo stick.

Amanat lent him a hand while murmuring: “We have lost our crops, homes, cattle… almost everything and you are merely worried about the graves?”

“You said something.” “Nothing…” “Look my child! The dead cannot take care of themselves. It is the responsibility of the living descendants to do so. Bullets and bombs rarely affect graves but rains and floods never discriminate,” said Mr Din while gazing towards the planes having nothing but water as far as the eyes could reach.

Approaching the flood victims in areas along the working boundary was no less than a Herculean task on Sept 9. Vehicles on roads leading to the cantonment area were moving at a snail’s pace.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan were scheduled to visit the flood-hit areas of Sialkot and supporters of both were on roads to welcome their respective leaders.

There were pickets in the cantonment area where the personnel deputed would first check the CNIC or any of the persons and then thoroughly search a four-wheeler before allowing their entry.

From the last check-post in the cantonment to the protective bund of Chaprar the single road was in a dilapidated condition, surrounded by damaged crops mostly of maize, sugarcane and fodder. Carcasses of cows, buffaloes and donkeys could be seen rotting in inundated fields.

Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2014