Mass exodus from Muzaffarabad begins

MUZAFFARABAD—People started leaving the area with the rich packing up their belongings and the poor piling onto the roofs of buses. The exodus began soon after roads connecting the capital of Azad Jammu Kashmir opened up, allowing aid to come in and people to get out of the city where 11,000 died in a matter of seconds.
People in and around Muzaffarabd are continuing to evacuate their destroyed and quake affected houses. Cars head out with dozens of bags, televisions, refrigerators and whatever else could be pulled out of razed houses.
At the bus terminal, poor men, women and children rush to get the next ride. Some, if they can’t, embark on the long journey by foot. The usual direction is Rawalpindi/Islamabad. They may have nothing waiting for them there, but at least they will be away from the horror.
Yasir Paracha had to fight for a place on the bus. He has already sent his wife to Islamabad and he and their wounded daughter are trying to join her. All he has with him is 500 rupees in his pocket. He says he will leave for good.
“My house was destroyed, 22 members of my family died. I will never come back to Muzaffarabad, never. It’s my ancestral home but I only have six people left in my family and I want them to live”, says the 26-year-old mechanic. Once he arrives, he will spend several days with distant relatives and then look for a job and a house. His entire life will start over again. Salaman Hassan, a bus driver said that each day around 10 buses, each carrying 45 people, and around 40 vans with 18 passengers each head from Muzaffarabad. And each time there’s chaos to find a seat. “What can we do other than to leave? There is nothing to do in Muzaffarabad. I don’t have anything any more, everything’s been destroyed. There is no shelter, no food, no water, no assistance, no electricity and new quakes every day”, says Mohammed Ali, who is fleeing with his wife, aged father and three children. The 30-year-old soldier has no idea what he will do once he leaves. “I don’t know where we are going to live. It is unclear. What we have to do is save our lives. I don’t know anyone over there. I have only a little money. I will have to rely on the government and donors”, he says.
The worst hit is the poor. Their homes were made of mud and wood and collapsed in an instant when the earth broke open while each day the wealthy residents of Muzaffarabad, often coming back from Islamabad in rented vans, pick through their homes and, fearing looters, retrieve what escaped the earthquake-furniture, jewelry and money. “Look, my villa was big and brand new. I was wealthy, with jewelry and plenty of electronics”, said Khalid Shah, a 35-year-old merchant. He left with his parent and wife for Islamabad and arranged to live with his cousins who have a big house in the Islamabad. He came back to collect as much of his furniture as he could as quickly as possible. “It’s dangerous to stay here with all of the aftershocks and the risk of disease with thousands of dead under the rubble. We will work out what to do later. We just have to escape Muzaffarabad”, he says.—INP