'Neglect, poor telecom and road networks' add to the miseries of victims in Haveli

Situated on the rugged mountains of Pir Panjal range along the heavily militarised Line of Control (LoC), Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s (AJK) tiny Haveli district still reels from the horrendous effects of flash floods and torrential rains, even as apparently Mother Nature’s fury seems to have subsided over the past 48 hours.

According to official figures, a total of 64 people lost their lives across AJK after heavy rains lashed the region after September 1. Of them, 29 casualties took place in Haveli district alone, which is spread over 856 sq. kilometres with a population of 165,000 people.

These deaths were caused by house collapsing, landslides and incidents of drowning in the ragging torrents, most of which had to be crossed without proper bridges.

“Indeed, the situation we are going through for the past 7-8 days is nightmarish. The weather became unkind beyond our imagination, rendering us virtually helpless before its wrath,” said Raja Mohammad Irshad, Haveli’s deputy commissioner (DC).

He spoke to this scribe on Tuesday afternoon in his office in Forward Kahuta, the sleepy district headquarters of Haveli, amid a meeting to review relief and rescue work as well as arrangements for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s scheduled visit to the area on Wednesday.

“Rains are continuing intermittently, and so are the landslides, aggravating the plight of affected people,” he said.

In Muzaffarabad, Saeed Qureshi, an official at the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) told that the onslaught of monsoon rains was severest than their spadework.

“We had identified vulnerable populations along the banks of rivers and torrents and issued timely warning to them, but unusually intense rains played havoc with everything, particularly in the mountain villages,” he said. 

The mud houses could not survive unrelenting rains due to which there were many incidents of house collapsing, he added. 

In Haveli district, the amount of rainfall was a staggering 400 millimetres in a single day, which had no parallel in the past 50 years, he said.

Residents of Haveli castigated the government functionaries for the “unending apathy and neglect” of their problems that they said had multiplied losses in the wake of weather’s fury.

What adds to their anger is the poor telecom network, run by the Special Communications Organisation (SCO), a subsidiary of Pakistan army.

It may be mentioned here that Haveli and Neelum are the two AJK districts where multi national mobile phone companies have not been allowed to launch their operations due to the so-called security reasons.

Resultantly, the residents there are left with no choice but to use SCO’s mobile phone facility, which has limited as well as pathetic coverage.

In Haveli, this facility is the worse for wear.

“Had there been mobile phone facility the affected persons could have conveyed their plight to the officials concerned instantly and subsequently the rescue operations could have begun without further loss of time,” said local resident Aziz Dar.

Similarly, the poorly maintained road network had also contributed to the suffering of people. Many roads ran through water channels for want of bridges and that was why several casualties had occurred by drowning, he added.

DC Irshad agreed that the “poor telecommunication and road communication” had contributed to this number of casualties.

“The (poor) telecommunications and road communications have been two major hurdles in efficient, effective and timely relief and rescue services,” he said.  

Rahat Shaikh, one of the affected residents of Haveli, said mobile phone facility could have helped residents warn each other of the looming threats.

“We had no means to contact fellow villagers, relatives in other areas and government officials due to bad telecom and road networks,” he said, as he carried his family to some relatives in a pickup.

Mr Qureshi also agreed that poor telecom network and lack of early warning dissemination system had led to excessive losses in Haveli.

“Even if one resident knew wanted to warn others of any threat or needed any help, he was unable to communicate with others,” he said.

DC Irshad said that at the moment the only road link between Forward Kahuta and the rest of AJK was the one through Bagh and that was for small vehicles only.

Heavy traffic would ply through Abbaspur-Hajira-Rawalakot road, which was still blocked.

“Its due to the blockade of this road that we are unable to transport tents from Rawalpindi. And if it did not open within 3-4 days we may also face food shortage,” he said.

Even the inter district roads were also blocked. Vehicles could not go beyond five kilometres radius of the district headquarters, due to the huge landslides.

“Towards my north, road to sub-division Khurshidabad has been wiped out at about 18 spots,” Mr Irshad said, adding, two dozers were working to create a track for small vehicles.

According to him, so far 380 families had been rendered homeless. However, the number was bound to swell, as many affected persons had no means to move out of their vulnerable areas.

Masood Rathore, a former MLA from Haveli, said 60 per cent of the district was still inaccessible as roads had either been wiped out or blocked by landslides.

“People have become hostage in their vulnerable areas. The government should send more earth removing machines to clear roads or else more casualties may occur,” he said, adding, tents were also badly required for the homeless affectees.

According to Shaikh Arif, an official of a local body here, there was only one civilian health facility for the whole district, but with only one doctor. “A Military Dressing Facility (MDS) in the town is a blessing,” he said.

Mohammad Asadullah, an elderly resident of Haveli, recalled that his area used to enjoy all facilities prior to 1947.

“We would study and shop in occupied Poonch city which is hardly 10 kilometres from here. From there, we could quite comfortably travel to Srinagar or Muzaffarabad or Rawalpindi via Uri,” he said.

However, after 1947 that portion of road was captured by India and over the next 20 years we didn’t see any vehicle coming to our area, he added.

Like Neelum valley, Haveli has also seen huge casualties in cross-LoC bombardment that was a regular happening before 2003.

“From natural to man made calamities, we have suffered a lot. We hope that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will offer us some preferential treatment on Wednesday in view of our sacrifices and sufferings,” he said.

…….Tariq Naqash