Owais Mughal
Baluchistan was hit by a cyclone named ‘Yemyeni’ four days ago and it has caused widespread havoc. BBC news site is reporting that 800000 people have been affected. Today there are even reports of rioting by the hungry people waiting for aid to arrive. Worst affected area is reported to be Turbat where water over ran the embankments of Mirani dam. Government aid has started pouring in slowly but a lot needs to be done. The detailed news about the cyclone and rain havoc across Baluchistan is all over the national and international media therefore at ATP we will let following images do the talking. The title photo above is of a submerged Turbat mosque.
These photos have been linked to the news sites and clicking on them will take you to their parent websites.
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In this photo, the main road to Turbat is seen washed away in a flash flood. This photo is from thursday, June 28, 2007. Turbat city which has a population of 150000 is also without drinking water and electricity. Government of Pakistan has confirmed 14 deaths and 23 missing as of friday but this number may go higher once the water recedes.
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In the photo to the right, angry protestors are seen walking towards the ‘nazim’ (mayor’s) office of Turbat. They are protesting slow and meager aid reaching their villages. The water from the hand-drwan wells has been rendered undrinkable due to floods and tube-wells which draw water from much deeper could not be operated because of power failure. Rauf Rind, nazim (mayor) of Kech said:
“The entire town has been inundated and people have taken refuge in tall buildings and trees”.
Chakar Baloch who walked more than 40 km through the night to reach Turbat said:
“Every family is looking for one or two members”.
Others feared they would never see their missing family members again.
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Photo shows some of the problems that this cyclone has brought to people in the affected areas.
More photos of Baluchistan rains can be seen at BBC news site here.
I agree with the comments by people that people are not as involved in the relief efforts, as in Oct 2005. We are forgetting though that the media stimulated the public last time. Live reports from Muzaffarabad by Hamid Mir, Shahid Masood and others spurred the nation into action. That element is missing this time. The media needs to step up and send their teams into the disaster zones.
Amry is already deployed in the thousands in Balochistan. The government should immediately cease all military and covert operations and order the army to focus all their energy on the relief efforts. I hope they’ve done this already.
The destruction and damage in Balochistan continues to increase and the forecasts suggests that things in Sindh may also deteriorate. I have poured over various reports of this situation as well as our own (mine included) comments here and wonder if we are all too concerned about the political implications of this with very little concern for teh human dimensions of this tragedy.
News update from Dawn:
I agree the media’s role has been very pathetic, people in balochistan are already feeling alienated and are particularly very sensitive since the killing of Bugti. The whole country should have responded to the call and the grant of 20 crores by the prime minister is just outrageous. When there was a cyclone in 1970 in east pakistan the poor response of the government played into the hands of Mujib and awami league and convinced bengalis that no one is interested in their plight in west pakistan.
We should not repeat same follies again.
Owais don’t be sensitive to criticism of the govts efforts. Its a provence controlled by the capital. I am pretty sure the nuclear power country and its people could have done much better. Response to the earthquake was better then the cyclone. We haven’t seen that kind of enthusiasm as we saw during earthquake from people as well as the govt. Its not politics to say that it is a less cared about province.
Please read a very different & thought provoking article on rains from following link
http://kashifhafeez.com/mazameen_large.php?path=20 07-06-29&img=kh_articles/large/2007-06-29.gif
MUST READ IT