BISMILLAH HIR RAHMAN NIR RAHEEM

By: Yasmeen Khakwani

Story of the Beautiful Kathai, Azad Kashmir

(This story was written by Yasmin after two visits to this area, first in Nov. and then on 8th Dec. 2005). 

Once upon a time there was a beautiful valley of Kathai. Situated at an altitude of 4,500 ft. above sea level, surrounded by majestic mountains, its terraced fields irrigated by the water of river Jhelum flowing deep down at its foothills on one side and with another rivulet flowing from the occupied Kashmir on the Indian side, it looked almost unreal. 

The people lead a very happy and contended life. The small terraced fields yielded good wheat, corn and other seasonal vegetables sufficient for their families for the whole year. The literacy rate was about 90 % as there were many schools in Kathai and its suburbs. The men had small businesses, shops etc. and some of the men were also working in U.A.E. The facility of electricity and telephone connected them with the rest of the world and some prosperous people had even opened a computer centre. 

The women had kept hens, ducks, sheep and cows in order to be self sufficient in milk, eggs, meat etc. A cool, breezy weather, plenty to eat, facilities such as computers, washing machines in some houses and a strong family system; it was a overall a happy, prosperous and peaceful village.  

The only problem was that it was located at the border of India, and sometimes the skirmishes between the forces across the borders was a cause of tension. However, with the army stationed at Kathai, the villagers felt quite safe and lead a normal life. The mountains also served as a natural wall protecting them against the Indian army. 

The morning of 8^th Oct. 2005 dawned as an autumn day upon the valley. The chirping of birds and the bright rays of the early morning sun made the villagers realise it was time to start the daily routine. As the sunrays gradually crept down the lofty poplar treetops, the bright green colour of the leaves sparkled making the valley look more beautiful than ever. This particular Ramadan morning had a strange turn of events in store for the people, but they were totally ignorant of it. The mothers happily dressed up the children for school and the men all set out to work.  

The farmers went out to their farms to harvest the sweet corn that would suffice them in the winters. The husk of corn would be enough as the animals' fodder. The peas and vegetables all half-ready would soon be harvested to be stored away for the snowy months. This meant a lot of work; therefore they had hired labourers to help finish work well in time. 

The shopkeepers hurried towards their shops in the nearby bigger town of Chinari, some three kilometres away on the paved hilly tract. The school teachers and children eagerly left for their schools, while the women began their daily household chores. 

Suddenly before 9:00 am, a severe earthquake rocked the area. The intensity was so great that within minutes the buildings started collapsing; the big, rocky stones from the hilltops started rolling down with full force as if it had started raining rocks. Land started sliding within minutes carrying along with it the houses, trees and schools built on the slopes. In some places, the land split up and collapsed into the river. The road to Chinari was built at the hilltop and a part of it also collapsed. 

The children, most of them in schools, screamed and tried to run out but it was too late! The high school in Chinari, situated at the slope near the river collapsed and then, along with the land, it slid down with its collapsed roof. The children had no time and no place to run. It all happened within minutes. 

The houses situated at the edge of mountains, overlooking the river below, slid down the slopes along with the landslide and there was no way to escape from this calamity.

The old and the sick found no time to run out. All were caught and trapped in the rubble of the collapsed houses and buildings. Army barracks were all razed to the ground in no time. All the soldiers rushed out except for the few unfortunate ones who were caught inside and could not escape. It was too sudden and too intense! One jolt after another without any pause and the intensity was so severe that the mountain across the river split open from top to bottom in small, long cracks right till the river bed below. At some places the land slid down into the river and stopped the flow of the rivulet coming from the occupied Kashmir, turning it into small lakes in many places. 

The whole topography was changed! The trees slid down on the slopes and left behind a barren land. The canal irrigating the fields and supplying water through water channels to the houses was totally blocked by the huge boulders of the mountains. Within minutes all signs of a 2 kilometre long canal were gone, as if it never existed.

As soon as the aftershocks were over, the survivors rushed to the rubble of the houses and schools to help the people there but alas! The school children had either died or were trapped so badly that not even the army could rescue them. There were no rescue tools or machines. Another unfortunate part of this bitter story was that the only road connecting Kathai and Chinari was totally devastated. The connections with the rest of the country were completely cut off. The telephone wires, electricity wires, water supply, road, all gone within minutes! 

Second lieutenant Masoom, a fresh graduate, was sent to Kathai for his first appointment as junior army officer. He narrated that he saw the roof of Kathai primary school which had collapsed over the school children. He said that one of the children was trapped in such a way that his face and one of his arms was visible from outside the rubble. He narrated that after a day or two he saw that the hand of the dead child was gone. Perhaps taken away by a wild animal. 

The other officers narrated an unfortunate incident of Chinari School. Hundreds of school children were trapped in the rubble and the school had slid down near the river along with the landslide. They said that the screams of the children could be heard for a few days, but it was humanly impossible to rescue them as there were no building cutters and connections to the outside world were totally cut off. 

After a few days, all the children died and the bereaved mothers would gather around the building every day and cry their hearts out. The rubble of that school became a sore for the mothers. They could not control their emotions at the sight of the building that turned into a grave burying their children alive. Finally, the elders of the area got together and decided that this tragic scene and the pain of the mothers should be brought to an end. So, they all gathered and pushed the rubble into the river to end the agony of these grief stricken mothers. 

In Kathai alone, 125 people out of 500 died. The bodies were recovered later by the efforts of the army. They also helped in digging graves and burying the dead. When the road was finally opened, cutters were brought and dead bodies were recovered from the suburbs as well. 

The green fields lost their masters and there was no one left to tend to the farms. The canal had been wiped out, there was not a drop of water in the water channels to irrigate the fields. 

16-year-old Shagufta, the eldest of her family, carrying her baby brother and holding the finger of another one had tears in her eyes when she said that her father owned all the fields on which Al-Huda staff was standing. Then she sighed and said," I don’t know who will tend to these fields now. Our house is all gone and we are all living in this one small tent." 

Another 17-year-old boy, standing on the ridge, pointed to the fields below near the riverbed and said that his father had left early that morning with two labourers for his fields. One of the labours came up to fetch something when the earthquake started. His father and the other labourer fell straight into the river with the landslide and even their dead bodies had not been recovered to this date. Some very expensive wood logs and mountain stones were all stacked up near the rubble of the house. The master had gathered construction material for his new house worth Rupees 17 lac but life did not give him the chance to do so. 

A 7-year-old child was sitting outside his shattered home with a computer screen (which he somehow recovered from the rubble) and on a broken table, he had put some candies for sale. Perhaps no bread earner survived to support his family. 

Two weeks later, PIMA doctors heard about this village and that it was still not accessible by road. The doctors’ team flew by helicopter with medicines and the basic necessities to help the survivors. They set up a field hospital and soon started attending 200 – 300 patients per day. Al Huda also started sending ration and beddings for the affected people through PIMA's cooperation. 

Two staff members from the Social Welfare Dept. of Al Huda personally flew over with PIMA's doctors by helicopter to Kathai on 12th Nov. as the road was still not repaired. The valley had an aura of sadness over it; yet it looked beautiful with the poplar leaves turning bright golden in autumn. The silver white corns were  all harvested and stacked neatly in heaps. The peas and turnips in the dry unattended fields were a clear sign that their masters were no more there to look after them. 

Women and children were all living in tents as their houses were devastated. The surviving school children were all sitting in open air in the fields and an army officer was monitoring the class. The school teacher was not well and like many other survivors was still recovering from the emotional shock. 

The children received their small gifts happily and had a gleam of excitement in their innocent eyes perhaps after a long time. Those same eyes had seen a nightmare unfold the past month. 

It was painful to see that not a single soul smiled and all had the same shocked expression on their faces. When they narrated their fearful and painful experiences, their faces were emotionless. 

The cheerful chirping of the birds in the fields, the lovely flights of wild birds, the golden sun, the shades of the poplar leaves, the clear blue sky, nothing seemed to have an effect on these ravaged people. 

Next the army officers started distributing tents, blankets and ration (food) to all the males of each family who had lined up in full discipline. The army major explained the organised method of relief goods distribution. He said that the officers themselves had made a complete survey initially. They climbed up the hills as well and collected the data of each family. After noting their requirements, they had issued them a small note with their code words as T for tent, R for ration, B for blanket. Those needing all the three were given category "A", the ones having tents and needing ration and blankets were given category "B" on their note and the last one was "C" which meant they only needed food. 

10,000 people including the nearby areas were being looked after by the army. It was supplying relief items in a very well organised manner. The people in queue, produced the note given by the officers and then the workers attended to their demands. After receiving their requirements, they headed back satisfied to their respective areas. The regular supply was being provided by helicopters to this area. 

On Dec. 8^th, the Al Huda social welfare staff accompanied PIMA's doctors team by helicopter and revisited the area. By now, almost each and every family was well settled in tents with enough food. The winter had set in and all the trees were now bare. The chilly morning wind welcomed the visitors at Kathai. The nearby mountain ranges of Kashmir had received a fresh snowfall and thus the chill was a clear indication that now some permanent solutions like weather proof shelters should be arranged soon for the people. 

Signs of life were visible as the farmers briskly separated the corn cobs from the husk and stacked the husk as animals' fodder. The golden and white heaps of corn looked beautiful in the morning sun. The fields were all ploughed using tractors. The government had supplied wheat seeds and fertilizers for free to the farmers to ensure that they sowed the wheat crop in time. 

The brave children were still sitting in the open-air school as the devastated school building was beyond repair. Some wise elders of the village came as a delegation and made two requests. Firstly to construct a shelter for school children at their original location and secondly to arrange for restoration of water supply. They took the visitors up the hill and showed them the devastated school building. Some of the rubble was pushed aside by the villagers and the floor was visible now. It had a long neat small crack running longitudinally as if some small channel had opened up there, but they told us that the joint in the cemented floor had split open. 

The original building was cleverly built next to a hill and thus the men explained that the children were protected from the chilly winds when it snowed on the surrounding hills. There was a nice clear flat land lower than the land where the school had stood and the visitors thought that it would be good to reconstruct a shelter for a school there. However, they were informed that the land belonged to the owner who lives in occupied Kashmir and he might object to it. So, it was decided that PIMA will provide enough steel sheets to make a big hall to accommodate the children and the furniture, books and stationary needs would be sponsored by Al Huda. 

The next visit was to the canal. It was further up the hill running along the hill in a winding manner. There were no signs that there had been a canal two months back. Everything was embedded in rocks and boulders and the earth which had fallen down from the hill. The banks of the canal had broken off and had fallen into the river below. 

The village women and children were fetching drinking water from a natural spring and the river below. The natural spring was known as "Tatta Pani" i.e. hot water. The villagers said that the water becomes steaming hot in winters and cold in summers.

The ladies were washing clothes there and trying to carry water back home. It was a steep climb back to Kathai from the river and spring below.

Reconstruction of that two kilometre long hilly canal meant 20,000 labours working for some two weeks. So the villagers requested that to solve the immediate problem a long pipe about 4 inches in diameter should be installed connected to the spring and a motor should pump the water up near the army base. The villagers could then easily fill water from the tap there. 

By the end of the day, all the visitors realised how blessed we all are and how ungrateful we are for the blessings of Allah SWT. May Allah SWT forgive us all for all our sins and may He not punish us for them. Ameen.