Nepali men have been fighting for Britain for 200 years. One photographer shows what it means to be the Gurkhas. - The Washington Post

Even when Britain’s military is shrinking, a regiment of fierce and loyal soldiers from Nepal still makes up 3 percent of its fighting force. This year marks the 200th anniversary of the Gurkhas’ service to Britain, a tradition that started after the East India Company first recruited them in 1815, impressed with their bravery on the battlefield.

When the East India Company attacked the Himalayan foothills that year and faced the soldiers from Gorkha, a hilly kingdom in western Nepal, it suffered heavy casualties. It then decided to sign a hasty peace deal, under which it was allowed to recruit from the former enemy.

For almost two centuries, the Gurkhas have held pride of place as some of the world’s fiercest and most loyal warriors. They have fought for the British in almost every war since 1815. More than 200,000 Gurkhas are said to have fought in the two world wars. Since then, they have served in Malaysia, Borneo, Hong Kong, Cyprus, the Falklands, Kosovo and Iraq. Most recently, the <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/back-afghan-future?nopager=1">Gurkhas fought in Afghanistan</a>, where they have a storied past, fighting the Second and Third Anglo-Afghan Wars.

In Nepal, it is considered a great honor for a Nepali youth to become a Gurkha. Outside the British forces, there are as many as 40,000 Gurkhas serving in the Indian army, nearly 2,500 in the Singapore police and 2,000 in Brunei’s Gurkha Reserve Unit. Hundreds of retired Gurkhas work in conflict zones as private bodyguards.

Perhaps the most discussed detail about the Gurkhas is the unique knife they carry. The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoxsJtvcIHM">Khukuri</a>, an 18-inch curved steel knife, is native to Nepal and something the Gurkhas have been <a href="http://www.nato.int/isaf/images/Feature_Stories/CSgtKajimanMCRGR.jpg">carrying in every battle</a>. If you ask a Gurkha why he carries the knife, he will tell you, without any hesitation, “To chop the enemy.” That said, khukuris also are often <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/post/in-afghanistan-the-most-expensive-chicken-in-the-world/2012/01/12/gIQAAZSXtP_blog.html">used to chop other things</a>.

Austrian photographer <a href="http://www.alexschlacher.com/">Alex Schlacher</a> spent much of the past three years with the Gurkhas to document their story — from their roots in Nepal, to their work in the British army, to their life after they retire.

The result is a vivid book of images, “<a href="http://arcofthegurkha.com/">Arc of the Gurkha</a>,” which was published in Britain late last year and is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Arc-Gurkha-From-Nepal-British/dp/1909653993">now available in the United States</a>.

We asked Schlacher to share her experience following the Gurkhas and tell us what she learned about the group.

Candidates start the 800-m sprint around the British Camp in Dharan, east Nepal, in the midday heat. It must be completed in under two minutes forty seconds. (Alex Schlacher)

A Gurkha of the RGR operates a javelin anti-tank weapon during an exercise in northern Australia. (Alex Shlacher)

The RGR is a light-role infantry, which means that the soldiers don’t have vehicles or heavy equipment, enabling them to move fast. But even the bare minimum of weaponry, rations and essential materials that an infantry soldier carries in battle is quite heavy, so exercises are always completed in full combat gear to keep the situation as realistic as possible. (Alex Shlacher)

In Sight: Why the Gurkhas? What made you interested in this unit?

Alex Schlacher: I was embedded with the U.S. Marine Corps in Helmand province, Afghanistan, in 2011. I met the Gurkhas at my base camp, and they spontaneously invited me to run with them, leading me to spend the rest of my embed time going on patrols and to police checkpoints with Gurkhas. They welcomed me like a long-lost sister and told me many stories about Nepal, recruitment, their families and what it’s like to fight for another country. I was completely fascinated and decided pretty quickly that I wanted to do a project on them. Upon researching Gurkha-related literature, I found that most of it was battle play-by-play and military history, usually written by British officers, nothing a civilian with no connections to the military would be inclined to read. I thought the human side of who the Gurkhas are was missing, so half my book consists of portraits and personal stories. I wanted the British public, in particular, to get to know these legendary soldiers, who are fighting and dying for them.

In Sight: Is there a particular story from during the recruitment that you think explains the drive and determination of these people?

Schlacher: There are so many, it’s difficult to choose, but one that immediately comes to mind is the story of Bhagat Gurung. I was taking pictures during Central Gurkha Selection in Pokhara, west Nepal, and it was the day of the feared Doko race — a grueling three-mile endurance run over almost vertical, uneven paths and gravelly roads, mercilessly uphill, carrying a basket, the Doko, containing a 55-pound bag of sand, to be completed in 48 minutes or less. The track is so steep, slippery and full of boulders that it’s even uncomfortable to walk.
 Bhagat was doing well, but a little over half a mile before the finish line, he went over on his ankle, hard. Desperate to complete the race and not fail the selection, he ignored the exploding pain in his foot, kept running and still finished in 45 minutes, ahead of a large number of his peers. He was accepted into the Gurkhas not only for his exam results but also for the toughness and tenacity he displayed despite a debilitating injury.

In Sight: You spent time with the Gurkhas training in Brunei, who are later deployed to serve the sultan. What was the most difficult challenge as a photographer following a group like this for three full years?

Schlacher: The most difficult times I had during this project were never Gurkha-related. They were usually administrative and financial. The project was self-financed, some of it through crowdfunding, quite a bit from sponsors and the rest of the three years “Arc of the Gurkha” took to make with money I was able to borrow from very generous friends, as well as my own after I had sold everything I had. I was staring financial ruin in the face several times and often didn’t know whether I could continue at all. My main sponsor, CrossFit, who showed up halfway through, was a lifesaver there — it’s also the sport I started doing at the beginning of this project in order to get fit enough to run with Gurkhas on deployments and on extensive exercises in Kenya, Australia, the Brunei jungle and all over the U.K.

In Sight: Part of documenting looks at those who retired. You have several portraits of these men, some who live in the U.K. and others who live in Nepal. What is their life like after fighting these wars — from WWII to Kosovo to Afghanistan — in the U.K. as well as back home in Nepal?

Schlacher: The life of Gurkhas retiring today is very different from times past, due to changes in U.K. law governing pension and settlement rights. Retired Gurkhas didn’t have a right to settle in the U.K. at all, and after they finished their service, they went back to Nepal and to farming or other menial jobs, subsisting on a shockingly tiny pension that often wasn’t even enough for them to sustain their families. Gradually. over the years, their pensions were raised to a level that today is the same as that of their British colleagues, and in 2004, Gurkhas who had retired after 1997 were granted the right to settle in the U.K. permanently. This right was extended in 2009 to ex-Gurkhas who had retired before 1997, and so some of the elderly veterans from Nepal moved to the U.K. Gurkhas retiring today have a different life — they tend to have a very good education, some of them gaining advanced degrees during their service. Their children were mostly born in the U.K., so they are very rooted in the country they serve. A few return to Nepal with their families by choice, usually out of a desire to contribute something to the country that is their home, but most stay in the U.K., to see their kids through university.

In Sight: There is a lot of curiosity in the Gurkha community as well as Nepal after the British government slashed the number of recruits it would enlist in the military. How do the Gurkhas feel about their future? What sort of conversations do they have?

Schlacher: I have heard discussions about whether the Gurkhas will prevail, but in reality, because the global security situation and, subsequently, warfare itself, changes regularly and quickly, it’s extremely hard to predict what any given country will do with its defense spending, and I am certainly the last person to be able to give reliable information on that subject. It’s true that the number of Gurkha recruits was slashed in the past few years, but this year, 230 were recruited after only 126 each in 2013 and 2014. If they weren’t a huge asset to the British army, Britain wouldn’t go to great financial and logistical lengths every year to recruit them in Nepal and train them in the U.K. They are irreplaceable. As I have observed it, the Gurkhas themselves tend to be sanguine about their future. It’s partly their mentality. They will deal with the problem when they are faced with it, and most of them don’t seem to think it’s worth worrying about something nobody can predict.

Anup Kaphle

The Washington Post

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Rescuers in Nepal finding total devastation in remote villages - The Washington Post

KATHMANDU, Nepal — The rescue chopper had been delayed more than two hours by weather, and when it landed doctors were quick to pull out an elderly woman, her face caked with blood, who looked at them and said, "Where have I come?"

Doctors told Ratna Kumari Shrestha that she was at a military hospital in Kathmandu, about 50 miles from her home in Sindhupalchowk. Four days after Saturday’s earthquake, she had been brought to safety, as rescuers were extending their reach to Nepal’s remote villages and finding scenes of utter devastation and increasingly distraught survivors.

Images of Sindhupalchowk, and descriptions by people who had seen it, portrayed it as thoroughly destroyed, its simple mud-brick houses flattened, heaps of rubble covering human corpses and livestock, and dazed wounded.

“No houses left, no houses left, everything is finished,” Shrestha wailed as doctors took her to the triage center.

[Read: Nepalis grieve the loss of their sacred landmarks ]

In Nepal Tuesday, rain descended on the troubled country once again, prompting landslides and complicating the efforts of rescuers to reach the harder-hit districts in the mountains outside Kathmandu, where whole villages had been laid waste by the 7.8 scale earthquake.

The death toll continued to mount, more than 5,000 and counting, according to Nepal’s Ministry of Home Affairs. Nearly 11,000 have been injured, and more than 450,000 people are said to be displaced from their homes.

In an address to the nation, Prime Minister Sushil Koirala 
 said government agencies are being  deployed in rescue and relief efforts. But he did not provide any concrete plans or policies for relief work and reconstruction efforts.

[Before and after: Kathmandu’s world heritage sites ]

“The government will learn from its weaknesses as we continue to find ways to deal with this devastation,” Koirala said. “This tragedy has taught us that we need organizational management in natural disaster management.”

Teams of international rescuers and aid workers arrived by the planeful at Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport, but the weather, the influx of help and the small airport’s lack of parking bays caused backups. Ten aircraft were stuck waiting on the tarmac in New Delhi at one point during the day.

The U.S. Agency for International Development has sent a disaster-response team of 130 humanitarian and search-and-rescue workers, and the United States has pledged $10 million in relief assistance. More than a dozen other countries have pledged assistance or sent aid, including neighbors India, China, Pakistan and Bangladesh, as well as the European Union and Israel.

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[Read: This picturesque village in Nepal is now flattened

Some good news: The climbers who had been stranded on Mount Everest were all rescued. Gordon Janow, the director of programs for the Seattle-based trekking company Alpine Ascents International, said that about 100 remaining climbers on the side of the mountain after Saturday’s avalanche were ferried by a small helicopter to safety. Other climbers, on the Chinese side of the mountain, are unable to leave because of bad roads.

A spokesman for the Nepalese Army, Brig. Gen. Jagadish Chandra Pokharel, said that the military  was still in the search-and-rescue portion of the mammoth post-quake operation and was reluctant to give up hope of finding survivors. He noted that a Turkish search-and-rescue team had pulled a man, bloody and covered in dust, out from under a pile of rubble on Monday.

“We have not decided the first phase is over, in the hope we may still find somebody alive somewhere,” Pokharel said.

The Americans, too, shared those feelings.

“There’s still potential to save lives,” said Bill Berger, the USAID Disaster Assistance Response Team leader in Nepal. “Everybody’s moving with all deliberate speed.”

He had arrived in Kathmandu Tuesday afternoon with Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department’s urban search-and-rescue team — 57 physicians, paramedics, logistics professionals and structural engineers who are experts in rescuing victims from collapsed structures — plus two dogs.

The team would be dispatched to a district not far from the epicenter of Saturday’s quake, about 50 miles from Kathmandu, where the majority of the casualties occurred.

Samuel Marie-Fanon, the regional rapid response coordinator for the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection Department, said that, according to government figures, 70 percent of the deaths so far have come in these rural areas, compared with 25 percent in the capital of Kathmandu.

“The situation is much more worrying in those districts,” he said. “The big rains have started, and all this week people are sleeping in the open. There is an obvious need for shelter and tents or tarpaulins. The priorities are water, food and, of course, medical assistance.”

Prem Kima, a Nepali who lives in New Delhi, said that his family had survived the earthquake but that their house, not far from the quake’s epicenter in Lamjung, did not.

“There is rubble everywhere. Everyone is sleeping in the cattle sheds. That’s how people survive in my village,” he said. “Everyone is trying to help each other.”

Even in the best of times, the place is difficult to reach, he said, one measure of the types of challenges rescuers will face in the days ahead. Once you leave the main highway, he explained, you have to travel on a small road of sand and stones for an hour and walk another two to three hours to the village.

“Even if someone wants to come to my village with relief and rescue it’s going to take a long time,” Kima said.

Kate Schecter, president and chief executive of World Neighbors, said that charity workers went to the village of Bahunapati, an area where they have previously been active, and found that all the homes have been destroyed.

“Children and babies are sleeping in the rain, scores of people have died, and no help has arrived. Disease is of major concern,” she said.

All day long, Indian military helicopters were ferrying patients from the far-flung areas to King Birendra Military Hospital, where groups of doctors and volunteer medical students unloaded patients and quickly classified them in a color-coded system — red for the critically injured and yellow and green for the less serious injuries.

Bimala Bhujel, 26, had been brought there with a spinal injury. When the earthquake hit, she recalled, she ran to snatch up her 4-month-old son. Outside, debris flew and she crashed into the ground, her body twisting into an odd angle as she tried to shelter her son in the fall.

“I fell down, and my child’s head hit the ground,” she recalled. “I was trying to protect him, but I wasn’t able to.”

In the end, she fractured her spine, the little boy his skull. They had been brought to the hospital after she lay outside the toppled health clinic in her home village for three days, where she had been given only a painkiller and a little ointment.

The children of the village had been playing a volleyball match when the quake hit, she said, so she hoped some of them had survived. Her parents did not. Nor did her sister.

“There are dead bodies everywhere all around the village,” she said. “Every few minutes somebody finds a corpse in my village. And there is not a single house left standing.”

Gowen reported from Itanagar, India, and Kaphle from Washington. Brian Murphy contributed from Washington, and Mrigakshi Shukla contributed from New Delhi.

<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/rescue-crews-expand-helicopter-sorties-to-reach-remote-villages/2015/04/27/e44280c2-ec63-11e4-8050-839e9234b303_story.html">Nepalis grieve the loss of their sacred landmarks</a>

<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/04/27/the-picturesque-village-of-barpak-was-at-the-epicenter-of-nepals-earthquake-now-its-flattened/">This picturesque village in Nepal is now flattened</a>

<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/04/27/before-and-after-world-heritage-sites-in-ruins/?hpid=z1">Before and after: Kathmandu's world heritage sites</a>

<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/04/27/nepals-other-disaster-its-politics/">Nepal's other disaster: Its politics</a>

Rama Lakshmi was a staff writer and India social media editor for Post World. She left The Washington Post in April 2017. 

Rama Lakshmi

Annie Gowen is a correspondent for The Post's National desk. She was the India bureau chief from 2013-2018. 

Annie Gowen

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The picturesque village of Barpak was at the epicenter of Nepal’s earthquake. Now it’s flattened. - The Washington Post

A view of Barpak village in Gorkha. The village has been destroyed from the earthquake. (Manash Shrestha)

When the deadly earthquake hit Nepal on Saturday, it destroyed parts of Kathmandu, the capital, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/04/27/before-and-after-world-heritage-sites-in-ruins/?hpid=z1">bringing down historic temples</a> and monuments that have been standing for more than 100 years. <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/rescue-crews-expand-helicopter-sorties-to-reach-remote-villages/2015/04/27/e44280c2-ec63-11e4-8050-839e9234b303_story.html?hpid=z1">More than 3,800 people have been killed</a> and more than 7,000 reported injured, while rescue efforts continue throughout the country.

Given the remoteness of the country, very little information is coming from outside the capital — only on Monday, three days after the quake, did Nepal's army fly choppers to three rural districts. These outlying areas are thought to have been hit the hardest by the quake and its continuing aftershocks.

One of those villages is Barpak, a tiny, vibrant settlement of about 1,200 homes in Gorkha district, site of the quake's epicenter. Even by Nepal's remote standards, getting to Barpak is not easy.

Manash Shrestha, a PhD student at Mahidol University in Bangkok, traveled to Barpak in 2009 as part of a team conducting a dental camp in the village. He said his team rode on a bus for five hours from Kathmandu and then trekked for nearly eight hours because there were no paved roads at the time.

"We could only see the village after reaching the top of a hill," Shrestha said. "I couldn't believe that such a picturesque village would be awaiting us when we got there."

Older men of the village gather at the chautari to chat in the evening. (Manash Shrestha)

Barpak is mostly home to the Ghale people, an ethnic group known for its martial prowess; many of its members join the army, especially the British Gurkha regiment. Shrestha said that every other house in the village had a son in the British, Indian or Nepali army. "The houses that belonged to British Gurkhas looked slightly more modern and decorated," he said. Because most of the young men worked in the military and outside the village, Shrestha said, he mostly saw only women, children and older men during the six-day dental camp.

"The village has a basic health post, and many rely on traditional healers who claim to get rid of their health problems," he added. It would take at least two days of walking to get to the nearest modern hospital, and only rich villagers could afford to get to Kathmandu.

Today, Barpak is almost entirely destroyed.

By Sunday evening, the Nepali army had rescued at least 120 people from Barpak and the surrounding villages in Gumbu, Jaubari and Kharikot.

<a href="http://setopati.com/samaj/27442/">Setopati, a major online news portal, said</a>

the majority of those injured have head and feet injuries. Ranbir Gurung, who traveled to the city of Pokhara with his injured sister, told Setopati that about 1,200 homes have been destroyed in Barpak.

<a href="http://ujyaaloonline.com/news/43412/gorkha-barpak/">According to Ujyaalo Online</a>, only four out of the 1,200 homes are still standing. As many as 700 villagers are estimated to be dead.

Gurung took this picture, below, before leaving the village.

A scene from Barpak village in Gorkha, where nearly 1,200 homes have been destroyed. (Image: Ranbir Gurung via Setopati)

Shrestha said he recalls most villagers gathering around a central chautari, a stone structure usually built around a tree, where children would play, women would meet and chat, and older men would drink and relax.

Below are images from Barpak from 2009 that show a thriving community and its people.

The route on the way to Barpak. (Manash Shrestha)

Children and women gather around chautari in the center of the village. (Manash Shrestha)

Locals gather around a shop in Barpak. (Manash Shrestha)

As night fell Monday, <a href="https://twitter.com/kundadixit/status/592686611613233152">army helicopters returned</a> from another round of rescue operations focused on villages in Gorkha. The death toll is expected to climb.

Read our full coverage on Nepal earthquake:

<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/death-toll-in-nepal-quake-exceeds-1900/2015/04/26/50af52d2-eb95-11e4-8581-633c536add4b_story.html">Aftershocks keep Nepal on the edge</a>

<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/04/27/before-and-after-world-heritage-sites-in-ruins/?hpid=z1">Before and after: Kathmandu's world heritage sites</a>

<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/experts-had-warned-for-decades-that-nepal-was-vulnerable-to-a-killer-quake/2015/04/25/0275959e-eb78-11e4-9a6a-c1ab95a0600b_story.html">Experts warned for decades about Nepal earthquake</a>

<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/04/26/how-to-help-the-victims-of-nepals-devastating-earthquake/?tid=hpModule_04941f10-8a79-11e2-98d9-3012c1cd8d1e&amp;hpid=z11">How to help victims of Nepal earthquake</a>

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Kathmandu Struck By Powerful Earthquake

More than 1,900 killed by 7.8-magnitude quake in Nepal - The Washington Post

ITANAGAR, India — At nightfall, Nepal's capital became a tent city, as thousands of residents displaced by Saturday's devastating earthquake stayed in their dark gardens and out on the cracked streets and lanes, afraid to go back inside because of waves of aftershocks, including a powerful jolt Sunday that the U.S. Geological Survey said measured 6.7 magnitude and which sent people fleeing for open ground and safety.

It had been a pleasant Saturday morning, with families just sitting down to lunch and tourists thronging to Kathmandu’s Durbar Square when the temblor hit, a horrible rocking motion that seemed to go on without end. The quake was ultimately felt across South Asia — in Lahore, in New Delhi, in Dhaka. Snow avalanched down Mount Everest. Buildings fell, mud-joined huts collapsed. By the end of the night, more than 1,900 lay dead, Nepalese officials said, with countless more injured.

And another kind of death: Durbar Square — the historic heart of Kathmandu, filled with temples centuries old — lay in ruins. More than 100 people were killed at that site alone. The iconic Dharahara tower fell, too. “There’s nothing left,” one despairing survivor told CNN-IBN, an Indian news channel.

[Read: After earthquake, World Heritage sites reduced to rubble]

“We never imagined that we would face such devastation,” Nepal’s information minister, Minendra Rijal, said at an evening news conference — even though Kathmandu ranks high on a list of the world’s cities most likely to experience a devastating earthquake. He said schools would be closed for five days in affected areas. He encouraged people to conserve fuel by not driving and urged pharmacies to stay open all night so that the injured could have ­access to first-aid supplies and medicine.

In Washington, Secretary of State John F. Kerry said the United States had authorized an initial $1 million for emergency humanitarian needs. USAID is preparing to send a disaster response team and is likely to also send a specialized urban search-and-rescue team, the State Department said.

[Read: Experts had warned for years that Nepal was vulnerable to a killer quake]

“To the people in Nepal and the region affected by this tragedy we send our heartfelt sympathies,” Kerry said. “The United States stands with you during this difficult time.”

National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan also expressed condolences and said the United States “stands ready to assist the government and people of Nepal and the ­region further.”

[Read: Massive avalanche slams into Everest base camp after the earthquake]

The Israeli army said in a statement Saturday that it would send military airplanes filled with equipment and personnel to assist in rescue efforts in Nepal, including medical, search-and-rescue and logistical professionals.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told state TV that efforts would also include sending incubators to help transfer to safety about 24 babies born in the past few days to surrogate mothers in Nepal for Israeli parents. Some were born prematurely, and hospitals in areas hit by the quake could no longer care for them, Israeli news media reported.

Countries such as Sri Lanka and Pakistan also moved to help. India dispatched planes and rescue personnel with three tons of supplies and a mobile hospital, and 15 helicopters were to arrive Sunday. Nepal appealed to China for aid.

As Nepalese emergency personnel and volunteers worked to pull bodies from the rubble, hospitals and rescue crews were quickly overwhelmed. Patients from neighboring areas flooded Kathmandu’s medical facilities, and traffic clogged damaged roads, hindering relief efforts.

At Kathmandu Medical College and Teaching Hospital, staff were doing what they could to triage patients, said Patrick Adams, a freelance multimedia journalist who described the scene. Many were still covered in soot. Broken limbs were quickly splinted with cardboard. The worst cases were taken directly to surgery. The 11-bed intensive-care unit could not handle the influx. The dead were lined up on the pavement outside; many had been crushed.

[Read: What the earthquake felt like from a hotel in Kathmandu]

"One woman was shrieking over her dead husband, climbing over him, pulling his face to hers, refusing to be led away," Adams recounted.

Shops around Kathmandu ran low on bottled water, food and phone cards. Eventually, many closed. Mosques and youth centers opened shelters, and the government set up tents and began distributing food.

Families huddled together as night fell. A chill passed over the devastated city, and rain was on the way. People worried about aftershocks. There had ­been dozens.

“We’re very afraid,” said Lhakpa Sherpa, a Mount Everest guide staying outside his home in the capital with his wife and daughter. “We can still feel the shakes.”

In the Tahachal neighborhood, a 66-year-old cellphone distributor named Laxmi Narayan was camped outside with his wife, two sons, a brother, sister-in-law and two nephews. He was still reeling from the shock on what had been such an ordinary day, from the chaos that descended as he sat at his desk on his half-day at work.

It was an ordeal just trying to reach his family afterward, he said. “The roads were cracking before us.”

Now he was wondering what the coming hours would bring.

“We have no food, no water or electricity. There is no TV or radio service that can keep us updated on what is happening. We are too scared to go back into our homes,” Laxmi said. “The army is trying to rescue people, but the government is helpless. The government is not at all equipped to handle a calamity of this magnitude. We need help from people who have experience to handle this kind of situation.”

It seemed as if Saturday’s temblor was the earthquake everybody in Nepal had long feared — the big one. The last time such a terrible quake occurred was in 1934, when an estimated 8,000 people were killed. But the country’s disaster preparedness was so uneven and its earthquake likelihood so dire that the U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction issued a report in 2012 that called Nepal “a tragedy in waiting.”

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake hit at 11:56 a.m. in Lamjung and was considered a “shallow quake,” which can be worse than deeper temblors. It was the largest shallow quake since the 8.2 temblor off the coast of Chile on April 1, 2014.

Outside Kathmandu, many rescue crews had yet to reach the more isolated villages. Nepalese Finance Minister Ram Sharan ­Mahat said on Twitter that a night-vision helicopter had been ­deployed to Barpak in Gorkha district, thought to be near the epicenter. The reported number of dead in Gorkha had reached 47.

On Mount Everest, several climbers were believed to have died and others were missing after the earthquake triggered a massive avalanche, authorities said.

One of the climbers who died was Google executive Dan Fredinburg, the head of privacy for Google X. Fredinburg had been enthusiastically posting about his mountain-climbing adventure on Instagram and Twitter, and his sister confirmed his death on ­social media Saturday.

The earthquake also caused loss of life and damage in other countries. At least 34 people died in India, and casualties were reported in Tibet and Bangladesh. India’s foreign secretary, S. Jaishankar, said in a news conference that a building at the Indian Embassy complex in Nepal collapsed and the daughter of an employee had been killed.

As rescue operations continued through the night, relief agencies geared up for a humanitarian response to meet shelter, food, clean water and sanitation needs.

“The situation is quite bad, and the cold weather is not going to help,” said Tony Castleman, the country head of Catholic Relief Services in New Delhi, where workers were planning to ship blankets and other supplies. “It’s going to be tough to sleep in the open.”

According to Nepal’s Information and Communications Ministry, the government has decided to open immigration services at all hours and provide free visas to members of foreign aid organizations who want to come to Nepal for rescue and relief efforts. The government has approved about $5 million for immediate use.

One key area of need is medical care and supplies.

Chakra Raj Pandey, the head of Grande International Hospital, one of the largest private hospitals, said the facility was running short on emergency drugs such as adrenaline and oxygen and other medications needed for patients in intensive care. The hospital’s large grounds are crowded with scared, hungry and crying patients.

"The influx is so huge, it's difficult to cope with the pressure," Pandey said. "The government is not really prepared. We are getting no help or guidance from them. We are shocked. We don't know what the days ahead will be like. The first day, few hours, we are suffering so much. What will ­happen later?"

Lakshmi reported from New Delhi and Kaphle from Washington. Mrigakshi Shukla in New Delhi, Anne Gearan in Washington and Ruth Eglash in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

The Islamic State killer is identified as a young Londoner. (AFP/Getty Images via YouTube)

Mohammed Emwazi filed a complaint after routinely being stopped by authorities. He received this response. - The Washington Post

Mohammed Emwazi, the Kuwaiti-born Briton who has been identified as the Islamic State fighter "Jihadi John" notorious for beheading westerners, was a familiar face to British authorities during his time in London.

As my colleagues <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/jihadi-john-the-islamic-state-killer-behind-the-mask-is-a-young-londoner/2015/02/25/d6dbab16-bc43-11e4-bdfa-b8e8f594e6ee_story.html">Adam Goldman and Souad Mekhennet reported</a>, friends believe Emwazi started being radicalized after a planned trip to Tanzania, following his graduation from the University of Westminster. When Emwazi landed in Dar es Salaam with his two friends in May 2009, they were detained by police overnight and eventually deported.

Emwazi flew to Amsterdam, where he claimed that an officer from MI5, Britain’s domestic security agency, accused him of trying to reach Somalia. He was eventually allowed to return to Britain.

Emwazi moved to Kuwait in the fall of 2009, where he worked for a software development company. In late May 2010, Emwazi traveled to London for an eight-day holiday to see his family. When he arrived at Heathrow, he was questioned about what he was doing in Kuwait. He ended up returning to Kuwait instead of seeing his family, who told him in a phone conversation that British authorities had visited them.

A month later, Emwazi flew back to London again, except this time, he was detained and questioned for six hours at Heathrow, as British authorities fingerprinted him and searched his belongings.

He tried to fly back to Kuwait the next day, but was prevented from doing so. It was then that Emwazi filed complaints regarding his treatment to the police. A few weeks later, on July 22, 2010, he met with London Metropolitan Police officers to discuss his treatment and follow up on his complaints.

The following letter was sent by the London Metropolitan police on Nov. 23, 2010, in response to Emwazi's complaints.

Emwazi received a letter from British authorities in November 2010. (Obtained by The Washington Post)

Here is what the text of the letter said:

I am glad to report that we have now done everything you asked us to do in connection with the complaint you made at DPS Customer Service Team on 7th June 2010.

My colleagues and I have taken the steps that you discussed when you met with my colleagues on 22nd July 2010, and your concerns have been discussed with the officers in question.

I hope you are satisfied with the steps I have taken. You have the right of appeal to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) if you think I have failed to follow the correct procedures. You have 28 days within which to make your appeal to the IPCC. You are advised to post your appeal in good time to ensure it reaches the IPCC before the end of the 28th day. The 28th day is 24th December 2010. Appeals received after 28 days may not be allowed unless there are exceptional circumstances.

You might want to consider using guaranteed next-day delivery post service to ensure that your appeal is received within time. If you do decide to appeal, this is the address to write to:

The Independent Police Complaints Commission

You can have a copy of the police record of your complaint, showing that your concerns have been formally recorded. If you would like this, you need to put your request in writing and send it to me within 3 months of the date on this letter.

It is unclear whether Emwazi filed an appeal. And it is not known what steps were taken in response to Emwazi’s complaint.

According to a friend, Emwazi unsuccessfully tried to travel to Saudi Arabia to teach English in 2012. Soon after that, he disappeared.

Related stories on Emwazi and the Islamic State

<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/02/26/how-mohammed-emwazi-become-jihadi-john-5-key-takeaways/" style="color: #2e6d9d;">Key takeaways of Emwazi’s path to extremism</a>

<a href="http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/world/the-islamic-states-atrocities/1608/" style="color: #2e6d9d;">View: The atrocities of the Islamic State</a>

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13 times U.S. presidents and Saudi kings have met - The Washington Post

When the White House announced late last week that President Obama would cancel his plans to visit the Taj Mahal during his trip to India and instead fly to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to pay his respects to the late Saudi monarch, it meant only one thing: Washington has very deep ties to Saudi Arabia -- including one that will mark 70 years next month.

Saudi Arabia has been a strategic partner of the United States, thanks to oil and regional politics, and since the end of  World War II, U.S. presidents and Saudi kings have met on several occasions.

From Franklin Roosevelt's first meeting with King Ibn Saud to Obama's current trip to meet new King Salman, we've compiled a list of meetings between American presidents and Saudi kings.

1945: President Franklin D. Roosevelt meets King Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud

As my colleague Adam Taylor explains, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/01/27/the-first-time-a-u-s-president-met-a-saudi-king/">this was the first time</a> a sitting U.S. president met the king of Saudi Arabia. Following the Yalta Conference in 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and King Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud met on board the USS Quincy in the Great Bitter Lake north of the city of Suez on Feb. 14 and visited for several days.

1957: President Dwight D. Eisenhower meets King Saud bin Abdulaziz

King Saud bin Abdulziz's trip to Washington was the first visit by a ruling Saudi king to the United States. During the three-day meeting, Eisenhower and the Saudi king discussed the need to settle the problems in the Middle East within the framework provided by the United Nations. But the most important thing to come out of this visit would be the U.S. commitment to strengthening the Saudi armed forces, as well as the Saudi reassurance on allowing the United States to continue to use facilities at the Dhahran Airfield.

1962: President John F. Kennedy meets King Saud bin Abdulaziz

After a surgery in 1962, the Saudi king decided spend his time at his 18-room oceanfront mansion in Palm Beach. President John F. Kennedy flew down to Florida to visit the king and wish him a speedy recovery. Among other things, Kennedy is said to have discussed proposals for reform in Saudi Arabia, including the abolition of slavery.

1966: President Lyndon B. Johnson meets King Faisal bin Abdulaziz

President Johnson talks to King Faisal before his departure from Washington. (Getty Images)

King Faisal bin Abdulaziz, who issued a decree for the abolition of slavery after discussions with Kennedy, visited Washington in 1966. "We are living in a world of change, but we, like you, favor change by peaceful methods," <a href="http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=27664">President Lyndon B. Johnson said</a> as he welcomed the king at the White House.

1971: President Richard Nixon meets King Faisal bin Abdulaziz

King Faisal waves as he is welcomed at the White House. (Nixon Presidential Library)

King Faisal visited Washington a second time during his reign, this time to meet President Richard Nixon. The meeting took place as tensions were simmering in the Middle East following Israel's decision to fortify its positions in the Suez Canal.

1974: President Nixon meets King Faisal

King Faisal welcomes President Nixon to Saudi Arabia. (Richard Nixon Library)

Perhaps no other U.S. president made the importance of the nation's relationship with Saudi Arabia more blatantly obvious than did Nixon when he visited the kingdom in 1974. King Faisal, unhappy with Western support for Israel during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, had decided to withdraw Saudi oil from the world markets, which raised the price of oil drastically. The king made his views clear as he said during his remarks that a real and lasting peace in the Middle East would never be possible unless Jerusalem is liberated and returned to Arab sovereignty.

Nixon <a href="http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=4253">stressed the importance of diplomacy</a> and said that while the United States will most treasure the wisdom it gained during the visit, "We, of course, will need the oil to carry us to our next stop."

1978: President Jimmy Carter meets King Khalid bin Abdulaziz

King Khalid bin Abdulaziz, who had a history of heart attack, visited the United States for <a href="http://www.clevelandmagazine.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=E73ABD6180B44874871A91F6BA5C249C&amp;nm=Arts+%26+Entertainemnt&amp;type=Publishing&amp;mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&amp;mid=1578600D80804596A222593669321019&amp;tier=4&amp;id=10450B04099E4AE8B73A9CA76618151D">bypass surgery at the Cleveland Clinic</a> in 1978. Afterward, President Jimmy Carter invited the king for lunch at the White House. During the visit Carter explained the status and details of the Camp David accords to the king.

1985: President Ronald Reagan meets King Fahd bin Abdulaziz

King Fahd is greeted by President Reagan at the White House. (AP)

Four years after meeting Fahd bin Abdulaziz in Mexico while he was still the crown prince, President Ronald Reagan invited King Fahd to Washington. During the visit, Reagan <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1985-02-11/news/mn-4280_1_king-fahd">urged the king</a> to use the kingdom's influence to bring about direct negotiation between the Arabs and the Israelis. The king, in addition to discussing politics, talked with Reagan <a href="http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=38210">about the rise of soccer</a> in the kingdom and about his princes who were studying in the United States.

1990: President George H.W. Bush meets King Fahd bin Abdulaziz

In August 1990, after seeing the Iraqi aggression against Kuwait as an imminent danger to his kingdom, King Fahd gave the United States the go-ahead to <a href="http://www.cfr.org/iraq/president-george-hw-bushs-address-iraqs-invasion-kuwait-1990/p24117">deploy its troops</a> inside Saudi Arabia. By the time President George H.W. Bush met with King Fahd in Jeddah in November, there were 230,000 U.S. troops inside the country. After the brief meeting, <a href="http://articles.philly.com/1990-11-22/news/25929813_1_arab-leaders-syrian-president-hafez-syrian-support">the king said</a> that he and Bush had agreed that the American forces would leave immediately once the crisis was resolved or at the request of the Saudi government.

1994: President Bill Clinton meets King Fahd bin Abdulaziz

Months after announcing that Saudi Arabia would spend <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1994/02/17/world/saudi-air-to-buy-6-billion-in-jets-built-in-the-us.html">$6 billion to </a><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1994/02/17/world/saudi-air-to-buy-6-billion-in-jets-built-in-the-us.html">replace its fleet of commercial jets</a> with American planes, President Bill Clinton traveled to Riyadh to meet with King Fahd. <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1994-04-28/business/fi-51537_1_saudi-arabia">Clinton asked the Saudi king</a> to award a lucrative contract to AT&T, as the kingdom planned to modernize its aging telecommunications system. AT&T was soon awarded the $4 billion contract.

(Note: In 1998, after King Fahd had a stroke, Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, who was next in line to the throne and had assumed all duties of the king, visited Washington to meet with Clinton.)

2008: President George W. Bush meets King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz

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