2005 earthquake: reconstruction still unfinished, residents live in despair

BALAKOT: Nineteen years ago today, Azad Kashmir and parts of Khyber Pakthunkhwa, especially the Balakot town, were devastated by a powerful earthquake that killed over 100,000 people.

The natural disaster also razed many towns and villages to the ground, injuring thousands and displacing others. The world swung into action with promises of donations to rehabilitate the affected people.

However, 19 years down the lane, the people of the most affected town of Balakot are in despair. The affected people say even after 19 years neither a hospital is constructed nor work on New Balakot city completed.

A whole new generation has grown up living in shelters in winters and summers and there is no hope that their issues would be resolved anytime soon. As times passes, the affected people of the catastrophe are forgotten by the government as well as by civil society organizations.

The residents of Balakot said that if the government takes serious steps even now the issues of the affected people can be resolved to a large extent.

Meanwhile, the situation in other affected areas of Khyber Pakthunkhwa as well as Azad Kashmir is stated to be almost the same with many areas still waiting for reconstruction.