It was 9 ‘0’ clock, Saturday, 11th of August, year 2007, an insidious sound gripped the whole surrounding; a truckload of boulders being unloaded or perhaps a jet flying over us! It showed no signs calming down. My mobile rang up. My relative was telling me that the depot has caught fire and people are fleeing.
Within moments the whole area was blanketed by black smoke. With it there was a loud bang and the series of explosions rocked the area. My younger brother had gone to a local army school of which he was a student and as a matter of good luck he had not yet entered the premises of the school. He came back running and shouted at us from a distance "run, run". He along with my imbecile granny, who is suffering from osteoarthritis, went to a safer place at a distance.
Red alert was sounded in the whole district Islamabad and traffic movement was restricted by authorities at various entrances to the district. As was expected the services of BSNL- Disconnecting India - were first to fail, followed by electricity. It was so chaotic that hardly people could locate their loved ones for days together.
The local army school was just a few miles away from the barrack where the fire had erupted first. Parents rushed to the school to rescue their wards. Where are you going? It is quite dangerous to go their. "No I have to go; my sons are at the school". "I have to rescue them at any cost", said a parent Riaz Ahmed Khan, who happens to be my father's close associate. It is pertinent to mention that he located them after a day at Mattan, Islamabad, some twenty kilometers away from the actual scene of event. As a matter of good luck the students had been evacuated. But they had been left in utter chaos. They didn't know where to go. While I was out of my house watching people fleeing, I saw some twenty students from army school, hailing from Islamabad, rushing away to places they never knew.
Hameed, a local shopkeeper, was the first victim of this fire. It really pains me to say that his body was left unattended for days together; such was the situation in the area. It pains me even more to tell the readers that Hameed was busy rescuing two students of army school, Salik Mujhtaba Khan and Zulfain Nisar, when a mortar shell hit him in the back of his neck causing an instant death due to spinal damage, reveals the post mortem report conducted by Dr Javaid Hassan, Assistant Surgeon at SDH Shangas. He was holding our hands, a blow came from no where; he was knocked down and then he covered his eyes with his arm, the two shocked school kids narrate.
What was ridiculous, and strange as well, to find out was that even army officials didn't know how devastating the ammunition in the depot could be and how to control things if any thing went wrong. While I had been a student of army school during my secondary education period I once had a glimpse at an ammunition barrack and had reported the event to my parents. I remember that they had told me that God forbid if it catches fire whole of the Islamabad will be reduced to ashes. Almost every one from the villages; Sombrun, Nowgam, Kothar, Pohloo, Pushroo and Shangas fled away leaving all their belongings. I saw a dozen of parents who had no whereabouts of their wards for a day or two. I and my father stayed back home but finally there was no other choice than to flee the area. We stayed at Uttersoo, some ten kilometers away from ground zero for a night, but it was as if we had been exiled.
All through the day explosions rocked the area and no one could dare to remain within he radii of almost five kilometers. The series of explosions continued without any pause and I could comprehend that almost three to four explosions went off every second. The biggest of all explosions occurred at around 8:50 pm. I and my friend where watching the smoke billowing out from a place that was overlooking the area, nearly ten kilometers from the depot. First entire area was illuminated; it seemed as if sun had emerged in the midst of night. The intensity of the blast was such that I felt my ear drum burst. The night was really dreadful, its memories will never fade. As the night passed, the explosions continued; unabated. However it happened all of a sudden, I could get it from my watch that it was 1:30 am that explosions stopped. Grim silence prevailed for quite a time.
As the morning approached every one was eager to return back to the area. I, with my few relatives, managed to be back and come and witness the things on ground zero. As I entered my abode, broken window panes gave a stiff resistance. Marching towards Sombrun and Pohloo, the worst hit hamlets, was not less than walking on a sword edge. One could see some ten to fifteen mortar shells and fuses in every compound. Many houses, shops and other establishments had been raised to ground. No one could enter his compound owing to the presence of live shells that could explode any moment. Live shells were littered everwhere; on roof tops, in rooms, paddy fields, orchards, school class rooms, in shops –everywhere. Many cattle had been killed by the shells that had hit them. "Almost 30 cattle, 200 poultry birds of a poultry farm at Pohloo, 12 sheep were killed and many more lost in the incident", says Dr G M Rather, the Block Veterinary Officer Shangas. "There was none in the houses, especially at Pohloo and Sombrun; even we closed and bolted the main gates of many houses". "The scattered shells and fuses gave tough time to my team and at various places we really walked on a sword edge", adds Dr Rather.
Till today people recover the shells that still are live and can cost them their lives. Almost ten persons were disabled, losing their limbs. Many of them were busy in taking their belongings out and clearing the debris from their houses. People fear to work in their fields that are in the vicinity of the depot and explosions occur on every other day.
All the houses in the area are now absolutely unstable. Their foundations and the walls are terribly weakened. Come an earthquake and majority of the houses in the area will be flattened. "Once strolling in my room, located on the first floor I felt that the walls are set into resonance", says Mir Aejaz, a resident of Sombrun. "Our house has developed many cracks and it can collapse any moment", Aejaz adds.
The role played by administration was completely disappointing. On the very first day of the catastrophe, when every concerned official should have reached the spot, there was none in the area to take stock of the situation.
An aged pandit from Sombrun- Moti Lal Ambardar, over hundred years, and his wife couldn't flee the area. They were trapped inside a cowshed for one complete night. It was their son Ramesh Ambardar, working in Radio Kashmir, who came all the way from Srinagar to rescue his parents the next day. "It was the good luck of my parents that they survived; I am really sorry I couldn't rescue them on the very first day. I rushed to my place Srinagar on the very first day of the event but couldn't reach here as bombs, fuses and Bofors shells didn’t allow any movement into the village, besides being disallowed by the security forces.”
The area was cut off from the rest of the world for days together. No vehicular traffic was allowed from Achabal onwards, towards the area as the road stretch was covered with live fuses, mortar shells and other explosive material. People of villages, especially Sombrun and Pohloo, put up at two relief camps; one at Shangas and another at Mattan. They couldn't enter their places for over a month. In this hour of grief and pain people of other areas came forward to help the homeless inhabitants of the tragedy struck areas. People of other villages generously offered their help. The help came not just from Muslims but from other communities as well. It is pertinent to mention that even Sikhs had set up a relief camp at Mattan for their Muslim brethren.
It is really very difficult to put in words the amount of tragedy that fell on the area.
Since that day people are demanding that the depot be shifted to some safer place. But instead of shifting the depot, army is grabbing more and more land. “It is pertinent to mention that Farooq Abdullah erstwhile CM sold a chunk of forest land known as Rakhi Kotheir for a mere 2.5 crores to the then commanding officer Col Sood", recollects Ab. Rehman Bhat, an aged man from Nowgam. To realize their dream of shifting the depot an Action Committee was formulated which had met the then chief minister Gh. Nabi Azad who had promised an action in due course of time. People are waiting for that ‘action’.
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