A Year After Pakistan Earthquake, Fear and Rubble Remain

CHIKAR, Pakistan -- Dozens of girls have been skipping school in this Pakistani Kashmir mountain town, but neither bullies nor boredom is to blame. Teachers say students fear being crushed in an earthquake like the one that killed 80,000 people one year ago Sunday.

Among the dead were 34 students of the Government Girls Middle School in Chikar, which collapsed in a heap of rubble and trapped scores of students and teachers. Four tents have been raised on top of the ruins to serve as classrooms for about 400 youngsters ages 14 to 16.

"There has been low school attendance recently," said Saira Bhatti, a teacher at the school. "They are so scared that the quake might strike again. Sometimes when the wind blows hard, the children are terrified and start crying because they think it is another quake."

Fear is palpable in Chikar, which was ravaged by the 7.6-magnitude quake that townspeople say killed at least 10,000 in and around the hilltop settlement.

All said they will offer special prayers for those who died in the earthquake, which devastated cities, towns and villages across northern Pakistan and in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir.

Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, led 1,000 people in a somber memorial Sunday in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, at the grounds of the University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, which was destroyed. Sirens wailed, and a minute of silence was observed at 8:52 a.m., the time the quake struck. People paused in the main street of Muzaffarabad, one of the worst-hit cities.

Javed Iqbal, 42, said that he was not afraid to sleep in his home but that he was an exception, particularly after reports of tremors late Friday in Balakot, the Pakistani city hardest-hit in the earthquake. More than 30,000 people died there.

"News spread throughout Chikar so quickly that there had been an earthquake in Balakot, and fears of aftershocks here have forced most people to spend the nights outside," said Iqbal, who works as a curtain-maker in Saudi Arabia and returns to Pakistan three months a year.

In Chikar, concrete and metal that once formed shops are still heaped in the town's main bazaar. Wide cracks in building walls give passersby a glimpse of rooms inside.

But earthquake-proof houses with shiny corrugated iron roofs are popping up in the town and on steep, pine-covered mountainsides. Health clinics run by aid groups provide round-the-clock care.

More than 1,000 survivors rallied Saturday in Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, demanding an end to delays in the release of compensation to quake victims so they can build housing. The protesters -- chanting slogans such as "Stop taking bribes!" "Stop cheating us!" and "Build our homes before snowfall!" -- marched from the parliament to the government department responsible for releasing aid for reconstruction.

Musharraf has said that his government will ensure the provision of basic facilities to those affected by the quake and that he hopes 80 percent of the reconstruction will be completed within three years.