Date:11/10/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/10/11/stories/2005101119980100.htm

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Fear, fury in Tangdhar

Praveen Swami

Families yet to receive food, blankets even after three days of tragedy

AFTER-SHOCKS: Villagers near the Line of Control carrying a man wounded in the recent earthquake arrive at the army hospital in Uri, 110 km north of Srinagar, on Monday. — PHOTO: NISSAR AHMAD

TANGDHAR: All morning, the villagers of Kandi, a small hamlet, watched trucks filled with tents and blankets head for villages further down the mountains. When a truck carrying supplies for them finally arrived after nightfall, three days of fear, hunger and cold crystallised into a moment of violence.

As young men pushed their way past the elderly and women and children, a minor riot broke out. One man was injured in a scuffle with the village headman, Siraj-ud-Din; two others received blows to the head from a policeman. A dozen others suffered bruises as families fought for what little could be had. There were 60 tents for 300 families and a few dozen blankets. No food or fuel was on offer.

Fear and fury stalks the worst-hit area in Jammu and Kashmir. State Law Minister Muzaffar Beig, who hails from Uri, received a hostile reception in the Tangdhar area on Sunday. Local legislator Kafil-ur-Rahman was surrounded by angry mobs both on Sunday and Monday, and had to be rescued by police personnel.

Saturday's earthquake has killed an estimated 300 people in the region and left barely a home standing. Winter has arrived, and the higher reaches of the towering Shamsbari ranges are covered in several feet of snow. Within weeks, much of rural Tangdhar will most likely receive their first snowfall of the season. Fuel and food is in short supply.

While supplies have been trickling in slowly since Sunday, hardship is evident. "My three-year-old daughter has not eaten for three days," said Kandi resident Ghulam Mohiuddin. "And all I have to keep her warm are rags I've managed to salvage from the debris."

Many others in the village had similar stories to tell. "We have one tent for three families," Shazia Mohiuddin said. "And most of the children are unwell because we have no clean water. You cannot imagine what it is like for us."

When snow falls, temperatures can plummet to -10 centigrade.

It will be near impossible for the tens of thousands of the homeless to be rehabilitated before then.