36 Kashmiris return home from quake-hit Nepal

As Hakeem Zafar Ahmad saw his relatives walking towards the arrival lounge at the Srinagar airport, he waved at them. A tear trickled down and he shouted in his local dialect, Kashmiri, “I am home now.”

Ahmad was one among 36 Kashmiris evacuated late last night from Nepal which was hit by 7.9-magnitude earthquake on Saturday. More than 5000 people have been killed in the country’s deadliest quake in decades.

Along with wife Shabnam and two kids, Ahmad reached Srinagar Tuesday afternoon and were immediately shifted to hospital in Police Control Room in Srinagar for treatment.

Recalling the horrors of the quake that flattened building and towers, Ahmad, a resident of Rainawari, says such was the intensity of the quake that they couldn’t know what was happening.

“Nobody could say what has happened hundred yards away. It has devastated beautiful Nepal,” says Ahmad who runs a handicrafts business since 1994 in the Himalayan country.

At the time of earthquake, Ahmad says, he was at his shop while his wife Shabnam and two children – Zaid and Ziyad – were home, a ten-minute walk from his shop.

“I was attending to customers when a powerful jolt shook the earth beneath my feet. I ran out of the shop and saw smoke billowing from every side,” recounts Ahmad.

“For twenty minutes I was frozen there. After regaining consciousness, I ran towards home only to find both the children and wife – who suffered a broken leg – crying.

“I somehow managed to reach Naya Bazar ground along with family members. We spent four nights under the open sky and during this time we were given only water and antibiotics by the government,” he says.

Another businessman from the city’s FatehKadal, Arshad Shah says that bodies, particularly of children will haunt him entire life.

Shah suffered multiple injuries in the quake after coming under the debris of a hotel in capital Kathmandu.

“I was partially conscious when I was taken to a hospital by locals,” he recounts. “The hospital rooms were full of bodies. Most of them were children and I wanted to leave because of fear of the bodies.”

At Naya Bazar, they were informed of efforts of Government of India to evacuate its citizens.

“We sent three people to Nepal Airport and they met the representatives of Indian embassy,” he says.

At 9 pm last night, Ahmad says they boarded Indian Air Force Aircraft and arrived at IGI Airport at midnight.

“We were received by Deputy Resident Commissioner New Delhi and SSP CID New Delhi, Sunil Dutt and were taken to Kashmir house where we spent the rest of the night,” he says.

‘2 BODIES BROUGHT TO JAMMU’

Meanwhile, the bodies of two persons from J&K—killed in the devastating quake in Nepal on past Saturday—were brought to Jammu, police said Tuesday.

“In coordination with Resident Commissioner New Delhi, MEA and Indian Air Force, bodies of two victims were brought to New Delhi and later handed over to their relatives for last rites at Jammu this evening. An ambulance was provided by the state Government to shift the bodies from Delhi to Jammu,” police said.