Our Correspondents
Mirpur/Muzaffarabad
National Resilience Day was observed in across Pakistan and Kashmir to mark 15th anniversary of tragic earthquake that hit Azad Kashmir and Northern Pakistan in 2005. According to details, the earthquake claimed thousands of lives besides causing massive damage to infrastructure especially in Azad Kashmir and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In order to express solidarity with the victims of calamities, various events were organized in different parts of the country including Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
The day dawned with special prayers in mosques and Quran khawani for the earthquake victims. Large number of people including family members, relatives and friends visited the graveyards in the quake hit areas to offer fateha for the departed souls. Memorial ceremonies were held in schools, colleges, private as well as government institutions of KP, AJK, Islamabad and other cities of the country to pay homage to those who lost their lives in deadly earthquake Prime Minister AJK Raja Farooq Haider laid floral wreath at Martyrs’ Memorial. The 7.6-magnitude earthquake that struck on October 8, 2005, killed more than 80,000 people.
Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan has emphasized the need for public awareness and the utilization of modern technology to reduce human and material losses in natural calamities. He expressed these views in a message issued on 15th anniversary of October 08, 2005 deadly earthquake, being observed across country.
‘The catastrophic earthquake of October 8, 2005, was a warning that we should prepare ourselves to respond to such disasters and invest in disaster prevention measures to ensure that crisis like October 8, 2005 is not repeated,’ he added. Sardar Masood Khan said that millions of lives could be saved through preemptive measures to respond to natural calamities. He maintained that successive governments including the present state government with the cooperation of the federal government have diligently worked for the reconstruction of infrastructure destroyed by the earthquake fifteen years back.
