Altaf Hamid Rao.
MIRPUR , (Parliament Times): All is set in Azad Jammu Kashmir to observe the 15th Anniversary of history’s worst killer earthquake of October 8, 2005 across Azad Jammu Kashmir including this district on Thursday – Oct. 8 with due feelings of seriousness, respect and determination as the National Disaster Awareness Day with the glowing tributes to be paid to the martyrs and other victims of the history’s first-ever most-worst deadly catastrophe in the region.
This year Mirpur city of AJK will observe the anniversary when it met the same fate in form of earth quake measuring 5.8 at Richter scale on September 24 last year, that had left at least 50 people dead and over 800 injured besides huge damaging of the buildings across Mirpur city and adjoining areas of Jatlaan leaving hundreds of thousands of the people shelter less badly affecting the daily life.
The anniversary will be observed as the National Disaster Awareness Day to mark the 15th anniversary the calamity as ‘day of firmness and determination for reconstruction – in memory of earthquake martyrs’ coupled with special prayers for the rest of the departed souls of the quake victims in eternal peace and to express complete solidarity and sympathies with the survivors of the history’s most worst natural catastrophe. The day will dawn with special prayers in the mosques at Fajr across AJK for the departed souls of the earthquake victims. It will be a gazetted holiday throughout AJK State.
Special ceremonies including walks for awareness, seminars and symposiums will also be held in all other parts of AJK in the memory of the martyrs of the devastating quake which left over 75 thousand people dead and lakhs of others injured in Khyber Pakhtunkhawa and Azad Jammu & Kashmir.
The ceremonies will be attended by the people representing all walks of life including social and political workers, lawyers, journalists and members of the business fraternity to pay glorious tributes to the victims of history’s worst catastrophe this day 15 years ago in 2005. Major ceremony to mark the day will be held at the capital city of Muzaffarabad, with the sign of deep-rooted love and affection by the government and the people of Pakistan as well as the national and international NGO’s and brotherly foreign countries who contributed their exceptional share for the rebuilding and rehabilitation of the quake-hit zone of AJK, DGPR AJK Raja Azhar Iqbal told APP when contacted on Wednesday .
Besides, special functions in various parts of AJK to pay glorious tributes to the victims of the killer catastrophe and to raise awareness among the people about adoption of per-cautionary measures to avert the losses in case of any natural catastrophe, will be the hall-mark of the 15th anniversary of the killer catastrophe which had turned bulk of AJK into rubble this day 15 years ago”, the sources added. In Mirpur, major ceremony will be held where fateha Khawani will be offered for the martyrs and simultaneously with rest of the country sirens were blown at 8.52 a.m and two minutes silence will be observed in the mourning of the victims of the catastrophe at a ceremony to be started at Quaid-e-Azam Cricket Stadium in the morning of October 8, local authorities said when contacted here on Wednesday to inquire about the programs of the anniversary of deadly catastrophe in all three districts of Mirpur division including Mirpur, Kotli and Bhimbher districts.
Concerned district authorities in all three districts of Mirpur division have given final touches to the programs of the anniversary in the division.
Earlier, walk of the children dwelling local rehabilitation house running under the auspices of various NGOs who had fallen orphan in deadly earthquake of October 8, 2005, will begin at 7.00 am from Quaid e Azam Stadium to central Shaheed chowk in Mirpur city will be the hall mark of the anniversary. Major ceremony to pay rich tributes to the victims of the history’s worst catastrophe, will be held in the town hall where people from all walks of life besides social and political workers, volunteers and the heads of the nation-building institutions will attend to mark the anniversary.
Several of the mega Development Projects of public welfare have been completed in the AJK capital by various foreign donor countries in the wake of the broad-based phased plan to rehabilitate the AJK metropolis on latest grounds comprising modern civic and other infrastructural facilities.