PAKISTAN: Friends and relatives light candles for those killed in Islamabad building collapse

Saturday (October 7) was the eve of one of Islamabad's worst tragedies. Exactly one year back, a massive earthquake hit parts of Pakistan killing over 73, 000 people in Northern Pakistan and Pakistan Kashmir. The quake also brought down a block of Margalla Towers, one of the capital city's most prestigious apartment blocks. Over eighty people were killed and more than a hundred badly injured in 10-storey luxurious apartment building. Friends and relatives of those who lost their lives in Margalla Towers held a candlelight memorial for their loved ones late Saturday (October 07) night. With pain writ large on their faces, and tears streaming down many cheeks, parents, siblings, orphans and family members lit candle after candle, dedicating them to the memory of those who had been taken away from them by the killer quake. But, mingled with the grief, there was also anger, especially among those who had lost everything in the collapse. "Where is the President? Where is the Prime Minister? Why are they not here with us? Our brothers, children, parents were lost within three seconds. So many homes were wiped out. So many children were orphaned. So many parents became childless. Where is everyone?" asked Shahana Rajput, tears streaming down her cheeks. Rajput said like her many middle-class, white-collared families had invested all their savings in their apartments, and now had nowhere to go. Most were living with relatives while authorities dragged their feet about their compensation. Some of those who had been rescued when Margalla Towers collapsed had also come to light candles of thanksgiving. Eighteen-year-old Umar Mushtaq was visiting a friend in the ill-fated apartment block when the quake hit. "When the quake occurred we were asleep. The jolts woke us up and we ran towards the main door, but the building fell face downwards," Mushtaq recalled. Mushtaq lit a candle for volunteers from Rapid UK, a non-government organisation, who had rescued him with a fractured leg after twenty-six hours. The friend he was visiting was killed. He said Rapid UK volunteers had used cameras, carbon dioxide detectors and listening devices to search for survivors. With help from their sound detectors whose sensors could pick up the tiniest noise like a nail scratching on a wall, they had rescued an Iraqi woman and her child, and a grandmother with her daughter from Margalla Towers, days after the building collapsed.

ITN Source | October 8, 2006

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