Pakistanis mourn on quake anniversary
A week into Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month, Pakistan's mosques have been even more crowded than usual. On Sunday, worshippers prayed in unison for the dead and survivors alike to mark the first anniversary of the nation's worst disaster.
"This day has revived my sorrows because I have lost many loved ones," said Abdul Rahim in Muzaffarabad, one of the worst affected areas.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. "May God give courage to our new generation to rebuild this city," said Rahim, 65, as he waited for a commemoration ceremony to begin at a stadium near the Pakistan Kashmiri capital's ruined university.
Sirens sounded across the nation to start a minute's silence.
The quake struck at 8.52 a.m. on a Saturday morning, at a time when schools and government offices were full.
With an intensity measured at 7.6, it lasted less than two minutes, yet destroyed the homes of more than 3 million people in North West Frontier Province and Pakistani Kashmir.
Small prayer meetings were held in Balakot, a town in the Frontier province that suffered the most intensive devastation.
The largest group of mourners were in the grounds of a ruined school where 63 children were buried in a common grave. More than 200 were killed there when the walls and ceilings caved in.
"Today's no different from the other days, because I haven't been able to forget those terrible scenes for the past year," said Taimur Khan, 22, who had returned to Balakot to pray at the graves of his parents and sister.
A further 1,500 people were killed across the ceasefire line of the divided region, in Indian Kashmir.
Shared grief has failed to push Pakistan and India toward a solution to their longstanding territorial dispute over Kashmir, the cause of two wars since they won independence from British colonial rule in 1947.
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