New Delhi

Pictures with a purpose

Aimed at sensitising people living on the other side of the border about the October 8 earthquake that claimed thousands of lives, the special correspondent of the Jang group of newspapers, Zubair Ahmed Kasuri, on Thursday released a pictorial review, "Paradise Lost", in Delhi.

Stating that through the pictorial review he wanted to assuage the wounds of Pakistani families affected by the tragedy, Kasuri said the money collected from the review's sale would go towards relief and rehabilitation of the victims.

"A catastrophe of such a huge magnitude required a Herculean rescue effort. Every moment one patient was dying inside a hospital. There were so many heart-rendering stories that I thought more than words pictures could tell a lot about the suffering of the victims. Though I am a journalist, I took thousands of pictures along with other photographers. Although we took more than 10,000 pictures, we have chosen only 200," said Kasuri.

When a doctor informed him that 98 per cent of the victims had their backbones crushed and the remaining two per cent were facing kidney problems, he decided to travel to the other side of Kashmir where there were maximum casualties. He was heartened by the fact that many survivors endured the tragedy with fortitude and the common man helped in rescuing the victims buried under the debris. — Madhur Tankha

— Madhur Tankha

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