8th October Earthquake: One of the worst natural calamities in history of Pakistan

It was really shocking and upsetting as what happened on the morning of October 8th, 2005: an earthquake came about as a disastrous event in the history of Pakistan to be remembered for a very long period of time. A lot of people were still asleep when suddenly they were jerked awake.

At the same time they started screaming from houses and apartment blocks, confounded and staggering as repeated quakes of 7.6 on the racter scale rocked the earth. It was Saturday, just before 9 a.m.

With the time people came to their senses, the phone network was completely jammed. The sweep of death as well as destruction crosswise the massive swathe of territory from Kashmir to Hazara, Swat and Islamabad was heart-rending.

It was the most powerful earthquake to hit the region in 100 years killed thousands of people and caused huge destruction in northern Pakistan and areas nearer to its epicenter, which was in Azad Kashmir almost 95 Kilometers northeast of the federal capital.

The collapse of a ten storey apartment complex in Islamabad wrapped up the whole nation, because thousands of people rushed to the scene to save those who trapped in the bricks.

Even though, the country was still reeling from the tragedy in Islamabad, another rude awakening was just almost the corner. Along with the news slowly trickling down from various regions, soon the news spread that Azad Kashmir had been hit badly, followed by KPK, next to the Afghan border.

The next day brought awful pain and anguishes to yet more many people of AJK who had gone to work in the largest cities however returned to their home villages to find them ruined to the ground.

The shocking earthquake hit the citizens of AJK in a lot of ways. Contrasting to the Muzzafarabad and Bagh districts, the tragedy had stolen shelter virtually from each single citizen of Rawalakot.

Rawalakot appeared to apparel the look of an overwhelmed place. Though, the destruction was not as intense and anguishing as it was in Muzaffarabad.

The earthquakes were as deadly as they can be, regardless of the fact that the impact came in a various form. The straggly capital city Azad Kashmir looked like a ghost town, a 21st century prompt to the World War II blitzkrieg.

Along with the complete suburban population heading to the town in faith of relief, more danger of disease was at hand along with almost 20k bodies decaying beneath the rubble and over uncountable injured living in the worst unsanitary situations.

The only health facility of the city, 400 beded CMH was maybe the first victim of the earthquake leaving some 200 dead. There was no power supply available in the hospital. All the telephone lines were dead and no diesel or petrol was available to run any car or bike. In such a disaster the medical staff can do nothing more than minor surgery, bandage as well as managing anti-biotic injections.

Approximately 4 million people had been affected by that earth quake. The major loss occurred in five districts of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and 6 northern districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The death ration was more than hundred thousand and seriously injured were in a large number.

It was the greatest loss for the country that it ever faced after its inception in 1947. The earthquake was shocking, horrifying as well as unbelievable because large number of families was rendered homeless while the complete generation of Azad Kashmir had been expired.

In the northern districts of KPK, Balakot a town of almost 250,000 people appeared to be the hardest hit because it was almost devastated. The tragedy magnitude stunned the nation as reconstruction cost could go more than 5 billion dollars.

It was really a hard time for the nation however the people faced that disaster with deep courage and pluck because thousands of people flocked to assist their fellow citizens, who had been hit badly and most horrible earthquake.

Thousands of people rushed to the various camps and donate openhandedly and open-heartedly. Away from the Pakistanis rescue teams, aid arrived into Pakistan from the entire world however the magnitude of the devastation is so huge that almost two decades decades are needed for the reconstruction and for rehabilitation procedure.