Kashmiris pay tribute to Martyrs of Earthquake, protest against government

Press Release/Muzaffarabad (POK), Oct 07: Paying reverence to the martyrs of October 8, people held protest rallies, processions and walks on Wednesday in major cities of quake hit zone of Pakistani controlled part of disputed Jammu and Kashmir against the government policies about the rehabilitation process. The demonstrators criticized Pakistan and Kashmir governments for their failures to rebuild the areas which were destroyed in the devastating earthquake of October 8, 2005. The anniversary of devastated incident is being commemorated today (on Thursday). The largest commemoration gathering was held in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, jointly organized by Press For Peace (PFP) and Action Aid-two sister organizations working for the rights of local populations. A large number of school children, traders, lawyers, political activists and representatives of civil society organizations attended the event and pledged to rebuild their homeland devastated by earthquake struck four years ago. Thousands of school children took part in Azm-E- Tameer-E-Nau (Pledge for Reconstruction Walk) to pay tribute to their fellow children killed in the tremor. The Walk started from Club Hall and culminated in Old Secretariat and turned a large rally. The participants of Walk displayed placards and banners inscribed with slogans like “Build Our Schools”, “Trial the Killers”, “Do Action but No Claims” and “Stop Corruption, Start Reconstruction”. The young children whom school buildings were destroyed in the earthquake, killing more than 25 thousands students, led the walk and attracted the attention of thousands of people who followed them during the event. The humanitarian organizations Press For Peace (PFP) and Action Aid are running an awareness campaign to highlight the suffering of the people living in the earthquake area, especially the school children. The precession was also addressed by a large number of young student speakers who said that the education was the most affected sector; however, only 220 buildings of schools from total 2835 demolished structures have been built yet. Paying tribute to their colleagues, young speakers said that these innocent souls lost their lives just because of poor construction of public schools and colleges. “Corrupt politicians and builders should be trialled in order to save the new generation of the nation”, they demanded. They also criticized the performance of EERA and SEERA, two authorise responsible for rehabilitation process in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and NWFP. They asked government to adopt comprehensive policy to rebuild their homeland. “The wounded people waiting for the rebuilding of public infrastructure would not allow the government and politicians to play people’s feelings with shallow claims and false announcements”, they added. Similar protest rallies and demonstrations were held in Bagh city of Azad Kashmir. Hundreds of school children, representatives of NGOs and large number of people joined the Walk in Bagh which was started from Haideri Chowk and turned into a public Rally in local Press Club. The event was addressed by Abdul Khaliq, Raja Habib, Yousaf Kashmir, Tahir Shah, Imran Gillani, Afraz Gardezi, Tahir Abbasi and others.