The world just shook (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

The world just shook

Nothing is left standing in BattalAzim Khan was devastated to lose 20 members of his family in the terrible earthquake in Pakistan earlier this month. We accompanied the Swindon shopkeeper on a heart-rending visit to his home town.

THEY did not even have the tools to bury their dead they too lay under the debris.

For 24 hours survivors of the quake sat amid the rubble next to dead family members.

On the second day men from Battal made the 90-mile round trip to Mansehra where they collected spades, shovels and axes.

"Muslims must be buried quickly after death but all the tools were buried," explains Azim.

"People in Mansehra were very kind and gave them the tools. Our people told them that they would pay them back one day."

It is clear that survivors will never banish the ghosts of October 8.

Shopkeeper Nazim Khan Azim's brother owns a small grocery shop in the town.

The drive from Islamabad where we landed to Battal takes about five hours.

Nazim and other members of the Khan family have come to pick us up.

There is plenty of time to talk about the moment the quake struck.

"There was a big jolt and then a small jolt," says Nazim, who was serving customers when the quake 7.6 on the Richter scale struck.

"Everyone thought it was the end of the world. We were all so scared."

Nazim's shop is still standing but is considered structurally unsafe.

"Looting is not a problem because people don't want to go into buildings," says the father-of-six.

"There have been lots of aftershocks and people are really scared that there will be another big earthquake.

"People prefer to sleep in tents even if part of their home is still standing."

Immediate members of Nazim's family survived the quake that killed around 1,300 people in the Battal area.

But his wife, Fatama, was pulled from the ruins of their family home.

"My wife was injured when rocks fell on her and she was dug out from under the debris," he says.

Like many in the remote town, Nazim feels abandoned by the government.

As we stop in Abbottabad to give the driver a break, Nazim launches into the Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf and his government.

"We are helping ourselves we have had very little help from the government," he says angrily.

"The first 24 hours were silent people were in complete shock.

"Then on the second day a single helicopter reached us bringing 150 tents and 30 bags of food it was nowhere near enough."

We visit the home of Shahid Qadir, a wealthy businessman who deals in medical equipment.

The father-of-five is one of the lucky ones.

Around 4,000 people died in Abbottabad, which is the headquarters of the Pakistani army.

But the Qadir family home survived thanks to its firm foundations.

Next door two people died when a garden wall collapsed as they fled their house.

"Everything started shaking like hell," says Shahid as we drink tea on the veranda.

"I was in my office and I looked out of the window and saw all the outside walls falling down. A couple died next door they were in their 50s. They were trying to escape when their garden wall fell on them."

Not far from Shahid's home on a piece of waste ground a tent hospital has been established.

The town's 1,000-bed hospital Ayub Medical Complex closed a week ago amid fears that it could collapse.

In the first week it saw 8,500 casualties most had limb fractures.

The majority of the injured came from Balakot, which is only a 90-minute drive north.

Dr Bina Swati was in the United States when news of the quake reached her.

"I had to come back to Pakistan to help in any way that I could," she says.

"It is amazing what you can do sometimes with only limited medical resources."

As Dr Swati looks at a row of 20 tents, she speaks about the need of physiological rehabilitation for survivors.

"There are some very serious injuries people have lost limbs," she says.

"But there are a lot of people who are shell-shocked. These people must be a priority."

Dr Swati takes me to see an injured woman who has lost family in the disaster.

She looks scared as you would if you had lost everything that you held dear.

"Sometimes I sit with her for hours just holding her hand," says Dr Swati.

"Whenever there is an aftershock she shakes uncontrollably."

More photographs appear in today's Swindon Advertiser

Kevin Shoesmith