Sunday, October 09, 2005
Just today I was reading the tafseer of Holy Quran which went like; “whenever any society goes way beyond the limits set for them by Allah, they are punished by natural disasters (earthquakes, hurricanes, floods).”
Instantly images of Hurricane Rita, Katrina and the Asian Tsunami came to my mind and later on I got to know of the Earthquake in upper Pak. At least 1000 people have been confirmed dead up till now and thousands more are being feared to be under the rubble. And Islamabad is not even exactly on the earthquake zone! I was listening to the comments of locals in Islamabad and a receptionist of the Margalla towers demanded probe into the low quality of the building which came down in no time. People said that the government rescue workers came at least 2 hrs after the quake had shook the area.
I have a cousin living in Islamabad and his university is quite close to the collapsed towers. He said he was in the basement at that time and getting out of it was extremely difficult with the ground shaking as if it were a rug being shook hardly. Islamabad according to him cannot be recognized as it was before. People are traumatized and rubble is everywhere.
Allah, have mercy on us!