BAGH, Oct 7: Standing on a hill across the Mahal rivulet, one can see that nothing has changed in the ruined city of Bagh since Oct 8, 2005 when it tumbled down in barely three minutes. The minarets of mosques that previously dominated the landscape in the foothills of the mountains are nowhere to be seen. One year on, the scenic beauty that in the past characterised Bagh — which literally means “garden” — is no more.

A 100-plus-kanal playground of the postgraduate college where children used to play football and cricket or where students took part in national cadet course exercises is now a junkyard where international agencies store relief goods. A number of large warehouses have been established alongside a couple of tented classrooms where a pack of stray dogs can be seen roaming around at all times.

While reconstruction work has not started in Bagh, a clutch of problems — corruption, supply of substandard food and medicines, psychological disorders, etc — have plagued the city.

A ban has been placed on construction in and around the picturesque town because of the proximity of two active fault lines. A yet-to-be-approved master plan for urban Bagh will pave the way for reconstruction, but it is not likely to be in place before the onset of another killing winter. It appears that the slogan of “Build Back Better” will not reach Bagh, headquarters of one of the seven districts of Azad Kashmir, any time soon.

Next to Balakot and Muzaffarabad, Bagh district with a population of about 485,000 people was the worst hit by the Oct 2005 earthquake. More than 8,500 people were killed, 7,000 injured and over 90,000 houses were damaged. More than 500 families of the dead and over 1,500 injured are yet to be compensated as they complete a long year of suffering.

The death toll does not include the unknown number of armed forces personnel who were killed in Bagh’s three tehsils, including those stationed at the 6-AK Brigade headquarters that caved in soon after the deadly earthquake.

Bagh is believed to house the largest concentration of the armed forces, comprising regular army and the Mujahid Force. The loss of men in uniform deployed at LoC bunkers in high-altitude positions — Forward Kahuta, Chirikot, Hajipir and Sherotahara — has never come to public knowledge.

A major portion of the town — a 1947 launching pad for the liberation struggle against the Dogra raj and India — is now declared a “red zone”. The term is used for highly hazardous areas in the context of the earthquake. A small town on the ridge of Nala Mahal, Bagh, cannot be reconstructed at its original location because of the two active fault lines.

“Bagh has been divided into four zones: high hazardous, hazardous, high dangerous and medium dangerous. No part of it falls in the low-dangerous or safe categories,” says Mumtaz Kazmi, tehsil coordination officer. Its lorry station, postgraduate boys’ college, Nindrai and Maldara are on one fault line while District Headquarters, Huddabari, Chowki and the girls’ and boys’ schools are on the other fault line, he tells Dawn. The dwellers of 6-AK Brigade headquarters — now housing two brigades instead of one — have to live in tents and makeshift and prefabricated shelters. The 7-AK brigade was deployed there for rehabilitation. Also, there is no building to house a unit of AT (Animal Transport) Harighel.

The emergence of post-quake psychosocial problems has caused considerable disquiet in the devastated area but there is no psychiatrist in the whole district. According to the medical superintendent of the Bagh DHQ, Dr Atiq Zahid, depression and other psychological problems are very common.

“About 80 per cent of people have become abnormal. Sometimes I personally feel depressed,” he says.

The MS, who is currently on a 90-day leave to relax, says maternal mortality rate has increased after the earthquake due to lack of staff and gynecologists as well as trauma-related problems.

The earthquake completely demolished the 150-bed DHQ building. Medicine Sans Frontiers (MSF Belgium) has now developed a 60-bed hospital in air-conditioned containers that is to be upgraded to a nursing school in the next couple of years. The hospital is short of women doctors, gynecologists and specialists.

He says no effort was made to rehabilitate the earthquake victims on a sustainable basis by creating business opportunities for them. Instead, most people have consumed their compensation money by purchasing mobile phones and cars. The use of “charas” (hashish) has also become very common in Bagh, he says.

He confirms that the supply of substandard medicines and foodstuff by international organisations was at one time an issue in Bagh. Now, all supplies come directly from the AJK government and MSF Belgium.

Another health department official says that low-quality Indian toothpaste and World Food Programme biscuits meant for Iraq are still being provided to schoolchildren in Bagh.

Afaq Ahmad, a child specialist at the Bagh DHQ hospital, says food, nutrition and hygiene-related diseases are on the rise although no data is available. Likewise, cases of people being bitten by snakes, scorpions and other insects have increased.

In the rural areas of Bagh, reconstruction of houses is in full swing. In Bagh and adjoining areas, cement and steel bars are available to people at normal rates through official hubs but masons and labourers have doubled their daily charges.

Residents of Forward Kahuta, however, say a 50-kg bag of cement is being sold for Rs430 instead of Rs300 and in Bagh prices of steel bars have gone up in similar proportion. “It is very difficult for the people of far-flung areas to build a two-room house with Rs175,000,” says Latif who hails from Kahuta.

Complaints of corruption have marred the distribution of compensation money. Zahid, a security guard, says he was paid just Rs10,000 and was asked to sign a receipt for Rs25,000, which was supposed to be the first installment of compensation for his damaged house. When he complained to some former and sitting assembly members, he was advised not to make a hue and cry because he could then be deprived of the subsequent Rs150,000 installment.

According to Mumtaz Kazmi, a total of 905 educational institutions were damaged in the district. Some 230 will be reconstructed in phase-one this year. This will include relocation of the postgraduate colleges for women and boys in Bagh and the construction of boys’ colleges at Dhirkot and Kahuta.

He says the authorities originally estimated the number of damaged houses to be 84,700 but this number went up to 90,000 in the second survey. This also included 14,000 houses in Bagh urban, where construction is banned. The master plan for Bagh, under which a boys’ college will be shifted to a new location outside the town, is ready and awaiting approval by the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority. The boundaries of Bagh town have also been expanded significantly.

Nearly 300 shops falling in the red-zone area besides the bus stand will also be relocated. The main bazaar road will be broadened from the existing 18-foot width to 45 feet and, as a result, about 75 per cent of properties on both sides will have to be relocated.

In rural areas, however, 42,000 houses are under construction and their owners have been paid the second installment of Rs75,000 each. About 20 per cent of the total damaged houses in rural areas are almost complete and their owners have filed claims for full payment. A number of teams led by local civilian officers and comprising military and revenue officers are physically monitoring the reconstruction effort to ensure that the building codes for earthquake-resistant houses are followed.

About eight different building codes, developed by the University of Engineering Lahore, have been provided to the people and their masons have been trained accordingly. While there is no restriction on size, L-shaped houses are banned.

The old Bagh is no more. But hope, as they say, springs eternal in the human breast. Which is why locals are optimistic that the new city, situated on the banks of the Mahal rivulet, will be at least as eye-catching as its former self.