Bitter memories haunt quake victims on Eid

ISLAMABAD—Eid away from home may not be a pleasant experience, can better be understood by the earthquake survivors who celebrated the occasion at a tented village in the capital.
"Eid is a time for merrymaking, but we may not be able to even think about the celebrations on this day for a longer time," said Shaheena Iqbal, 42, a resident of Muzaffarabad and a mother of three who lost her father and mother among three other family members in October 8 earthquake. This time, Eid is not same for Shaheena who is living in a tented village in H-11 with her husband, children and mother-in-law.
Shaheena said, "God knows who are the victims in real sense, either those who lost their lives in the tragedy or the 'we' survivors who can do nothing, but to mourn the deaths of our near and dear ones on this Eid."
"The spirit behind the Eid celebrations is to share grief and wish one another, and this time we better maintained this spirit," she said while sitting on a floor bed besides the Eid gifts presented by the locals. More than 3,500 quake victims are currently living at the tented village in H-11 sector where 900 tents have been pitched by the Capital Development Authority.
Voices of playing children coming from outside the tent were contrasting the melancholic atmosphere and the mood of the inmates of the tent.
"We are still not able to forget the bitter scenes of razed houses, stinking corpses and scattered graves which we had left back in our area," she said looking at her children in the tent.
A large number of people in the hilly areas, who luckily escaped the tragedy, were still searching for food and shelter with cold adding much to their miseries, she said.
The response of the country fellows to this human tragedy is overwhelming and everybody looks eager to provide every kind of support to quake victims, she said.
Shaheena was grateful to the volunteers and local staff members who were working day and night even on Eid days in the tented village. "We were being provided food, medicine and other facilities, but the bitter memories may take us a long to forget the tragedy and think about our future," she said. Groups of men and women sitting outside their tents still narrate the tragic tales of the disaster which not only caused huge loss to life and property, but also inflicted a severe mental blow on the survivors.