The Elimination of Bagh

Salam alaikum.

Geo TV just aired a special report from one of it's chief correspondents, Hamid Mir, on the situation in Bagh, a small town in Pakistan-administered Kasmir (Azad Kashmir). Most people have been focusing on Muzaffarabad, Balakot and Ravalakot but the picture of Bagh drew tears to the eyes.

Nothing remains of the once-scenic town of Bagh. The report took us everywhere in the town and at each place they told us the number of dead trapped underneath the debris - a girls' primary school where 300 girls lay buried, a boys' college where about 1200 are thought to be trapped - dead. All that could be seen of homes were their collapsed roofs.

Every single person had a story to tell - had lost atleast one of their near ones. Parents sat outside the ruins of their children's schools, hoping to find their sons and daughters. Women were wailing, lamenting the loss of their mothers, fathers, sisters, daughters, brothers, sons...

Government officials, policemen, no-one was spared by the quake. The few people that remain, the disjointed families have nowhere to go. A teacher or two is alive, and tells of his or her colleagues that couldn't make it to safety. How they count the dead... it is a wonder the death toll is said to be 30,000 when so many people lie underneath the rubble, unaccounted for.

I don't even know why I am writing this here. Who am I trying to reach out to? Allah knows what has happened and He definitely had a purpose and reason for what happened. They were poor people. And they are poorer now. A very long winter is approaching and the sure snowfall.

I don't know what to do. This helplessness is very depressing - what on earth could I possibly do, ever, to relieve those grief-stricken people? They are burying their dead in mass graves... newspapers cover the dead.

Painful is the indifference of people even today. We don't deserve to celebrate Eid, we don't deserve to enjoy anything while our brothers and sisters are in such pain and torment. Don't waste your money in Eid shopping, these people need it more. Can we do anything more? Can we? But how?

I am sitting thousands of kilometres away, on the southern border of Pakistan but the pain and torment seems to fly with the wind and reach us. I see now why people despair of Allah's help. Thoughts float around in my head. Those people. Who will save them? Will Allah save them?

InshAllah, Allah will save them and Allah will guide them to a better life. But with the young generation all perished? Thousands of girls and thousands of boys?

May Allah help us from the despair that follows such tragedies. Ameen. Please remember them in your prayers... remember those who are in terrible pain and grief. May Allah be with us. Ameen.