PAKISTAN: Pakistan mourns victims on one-year anniversary of devastating Kashmir earthquake

Pakistan united in mourning on Sunday (October 8) to remember around 73,000 people killed in an earthquake exactly a year ago. President Pervez Musharraf attended a commemoration ceremony at Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, one of the country's worst hit areas and said he was happy to see that the reconstruction efforts are well on their way. A week into Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month, Pakistan mosques have been even more crowded than usual. On Sunday worshippers prayed in unison for the dead and survivors alike to mark the first anniversary of the nation's worst disaster. President Musharraf stood up with the rest of the crowd attending the ceremony when sirens sounded in the devastated city as well as across the nation to start a minute's silence. After the minute of silence, President Musharraf put a wreath on a monument built to remember the quake victims and prayed with all mourners attending ceremony. Musharraf praised the efforts of all the organisations involved in the reconstruction of the region and was satisfied in what he says is a significant improvement. "It is our success. It is your success, the government's success, the army's success, NGO's success, and success of the international community which supported us. With the Grace of God, things are heading towards much improvement," said Musharraf. Memorial services of varying natures, by various groups of people, were held in capital Islamabad and other places affected by the quake. Margala Towers, a prestigious apartment block in Islamabad, and the only building in the capital to collapse, lost two of its blocks when they came crashing down on residents of 75 apartments. Scores of people were trapped beneath the rubble of the 10-storey Margala Towers blocks where expatriate workers and middle-class Pakistanis lived. Around 80 people died, many of them foreigners. Family members and friends of the Pakistanis, Japanese and Egyptian quake victims thronged the Margala Towers Sunday morning to lay flowers on the steps of one of the intact blocks. There was silence all over Ground Zero, as the gathering stood up to observe a minute's silence along with the whole nation. 10-year-old Hiba Ahmed, who had lost an uncle's entire family of six, stood with her bent head covered in a pink veil. She said she had lost one of her favourite cousins in the tragedy. "No, we were in our own home. We found out (about the loss) after a little while," she said, fighting back her tears. Weeping women and men holding back their tears raised their hands in prayers as a local cleric prayed for the departed souls.

ITN Source | October 8, 2006

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