news details |
|
|
| 80 % population of Uri, Tangdhar suffer from PTSD | | Victims of devastating Oct 2005 earthquake still in trauma | | Early Times Reporter
Uri | Oct 8
With the devastating earthquake of October 2005 completing its second anniversary today, people of Uri and Tangdhar areas of North Kashmir are still in trauma.
Juma Khan, 47, a resident of Nambla village in Uri, Baramulla district in North Kashmir is a case in point. Uri bore the brunt of the October 8, 2005 earthquake that turned almost its all villages into heaps of rubble. Khan lost his wife, Fareeda, in the deadly quake and his house was razed to the ground in 7.6 on the Richter scale quake.
He was already facing the problem of two daughters who were suffering from polio and walking on stretches. The deadly quake took away his wife, the only source of inspiration for Khan.
Two years on, Khan is a lone man now. Ironically, he is suffering from hypertension. On that fateful day, he was not present in his house. That is what is haunting him the most.
“How can I forget the day that made my life hell? My wife was a real support for me,” says, feeble looking Khan. “Shall I look after my children or to go out for the work or to construct the house? I don’t know what to do”.
The village has a population of more than 300 people and almost everybody lost their dear ones in the deadly quake.
According to Kashmir chapter of an international NGO, Action Aid, it has been observed that 80-per cent of the population in Uri and Tanghdar areas of North Kashmir is suffering from post traumatic disorders (PTSD) that include depression and hypertension.
“We are finding that PTSD, schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorders are more common in the survivors of October 2005 earth quake,” says Shabana Mahajan, Action Aids mental health officer for north Kashmir. She says while over 65 per cent of permanent construction is complete, poor people are still struggling to improve their semi-permanent shelters.
“Though the main hospitals in Uri and Tangdhar have been reconstructed, but people living close to the Line of Control (LoC) are still facing health related problems,” Mahajan said adding that ‘more than 40 villages in Uri and Tangdhar are facing sever problems of health care.”
On October 8, 2005 a massive earth quake, 7.6 on Richter scale turned Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) into heaps of rubble and claimed thousands of lives there. In this part of the Kashmir, north Kashmir’s Baramulla and Kupwara districts bore the brunt.
According to official figures, 881 people lost their lives in Uri and Tanghdar areas of north Kashmir. More than 30,000 houses suffered complete to partial damage. In Tanghdar, 271 people were killed while rest of the causalities took place in Uri.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
