The towns of Balakot in Hazara and Bagh in Azad Kashmir were razed to ground completely and more than 100,000 people are feared dead in these two cities only. The stench of death hangs over the weaving rows of rubble that was once Balakot, a thriving tourist town, a must stopover for cheerful visitors enroute to Kaghan. Saturday's massive quake has turned the historic town of Syed Ahmed Shah's martyrdom into a massive graveyard sprawling on both sides of the river Kunhar while the survivors with broken limbs and hearts mourn their loved ones who perished in thousands in Saturday's earthquake. With estimates of 60,000 or above deaths in this town alone, there is hardly a family that has not lost several of its members. At least 1,000 students buried under the rubble of their school buildings have yet to be recovered. All the communication and transport links of areas beyond Balakot have broken with the outside world and the inhabitants are virtually living in stone age under the open sky. There is no electricity, no telephone line working, no clean water, no food, no medical equipment to save lives, no medicines, no tents and no blankets. In Government High School Balakot, there were 900 students, in Government Degree College for Girls there were 350, and in International Islamia Model School there were 600 kids on Saturday. From Government Degree College Hassa, near Balakot, 150 bodies were retrieved. Except Madni Market near the bridge and three signal towers erected by Mobilink, WLL, and Telenor, the bazar starting from the Shell patrol pump on Kaghan Road (the first milestone that you notice while entering Balakot) to Park Hotel built across the Kunhar, all shops, hotels, shopping malls, cafes, and houses on two kilometer stretch have been flattened completely. Each of this concrete and steel structure turned into graveyard for those who could not run on to the streets within seconds after the deadly quake struck them. A huge number of Balakot residents are buried under the debris, no rescue effort has yet started and hope for survivors is diminishing. Just few yards away, the earthquake that wreaked cracks in the ground at a number of places, had tossed two jeeps onto the riverbed. No one is sure of the passengers. Near Madni market, the lonely building in Balakot that survived the earthquake, another truck was thrown into a shop, two pick up vans nearby were lying on their side. The whole area is littered with concrete, electric wires, shoes, blood-soaked clothes, packets of yogurt, milk, spices, chillies, salt, grains, pulses, straw mats, iron rods, bricks, mud, household items, and plastic toys. It's a mess that will take years, or perhaps decades, to clean up but the scars that this tragedy has left on the minds of people will never go. Comprising 12 union councils, Balakot and Karlot, make what Balakot city is today. Both these areas have been totally razed to the ground. Four-storey buildings, post office, police station, civil hospital, Nadra office, offices of travel agents, PCOs, mosques, petrol pumps, and other government departments have reduced to a flattened bed of rocks. A five-member French rescue team arrived in a helicopter Monday afternoon to help the civilian volunteers who have been recovering bodies, and alive victims from the rubble of schools, shops and residences. A Japanese team has also set up its camp in Balakot but has not yet started its operation. The first Pakistani army convoy arrived in the outskirts of Balakot late afternoon and was busy setting up its camp. With evening falling fast, they are unlikely to launch any operation before Tuesday. The students of University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar were the first who arrived in Balakot on Saturday afternoon with medicine, food, and water. They were joined by the students of Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Technology.
Roads are blocked with huge landslides. No one can go beyond Balakot. The road from Mansehra to Balakot opened on Monday morning but the massive rescue operation launched by the civilians using their own vehicles resulted into worst traffic jams and passengers. victims fleeing Balakot and adjoining areas and the rescue workers were stranded for hours despite the presence of military which, most of the time, stayed away from handling the traffic. The volunteers who came from nearby districts did a commendable job by recovering and burying dozens of bodies. The supplies of food items, medicines, blankets, warm clothes and other edibles came from Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan and even from Nasirabad Balochistan. As many as five million people were left homeless and were now living in the open and freezing temperatures since the quake.Teams from Turkey, Germany, and UK carrying mobile hospitals have been despatched to Muzaffarabad. Teams of Rescuers from UAE, Jordan, China, and Japan along with sniffer dogs have been deployed in Balaokot, Mansehra and Batgram.
