Focus on forgotten quake victims of Kala Dhaka

More than a year after a powerful earthquake devastated northern Pakistan and Pakistani-administered Kashmir there are still communities that had been left out in the quake zone. The isolated tribal area of Kala Dhaka in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) was badly affected by the last year’s disaster but such is the remoteness of this ‘forbidden’ corner of North West Frontier Province that no coordinated international aid effort ever came there.

Kala Dhaka tribesman Jahanzeb points upwards to a tiny cluster of ruined housing clinging to the rocky ridge some 2,000 feet above. “Peer Khel village,” he says, sweeping his hand horizontally. “It is destroyed.”

The ‘forbidden’ tribal area of Kala Dhaka, surrounded by ragged mountain peaks, wooded slopes topping at 11,000 feet and plunging to cultivated stepped valleys below is a land of brutal, breathtaking beauty, almost untouched by modern life for centuries.

The village of Peer Khel was gone when the quake struck and almost 750 people faced a desperate daily battle for survival. No significant aid had reached them. It was one of dozens of villages dotted at altitude in the mountains, overcome by last year’s catastrophe.

Although it is more than a year since the terrible force of the earthquake shook mountain villages from their footings, spilling the wreckage of broken communities into the valleys below, little has changed in Peer Khel and the many villages like it in Kala Dhaka which suffered complete destruction.

Many Kala Dhaka quake survivors – tribal leaders claim their number reach one-third of the area’s population - are still at risk from exposure, hunger and disease with the approach of the second winter since the disaster.

But access to this region is not easy. The land itself is harsh and unforgiving, the few dirt roads strewn with boulders and barely wide enough for jeeps. The people are heavily armed, security to western aid agencies perceived as an unacceptable risk. Politics, religion and centuries of isolation breed suspicion on both sides.

Come here without an invitation by the tribal councils, the Loya Jirga, and you are likely to be shot at, they say. But if you are their friend there are no boundaries to their hospitality and these people show their gentle nature, offering to share everything they have.

Utter devastation in Peer Khel village, where every building was either severely damaged or totally destroyed by the quake

The area has been self-governing by its five tribes for centuries in a situation dating back to Sikh rule, inherited by the British Empire and in turn respected by the national Government of Pakistan since partition from India in 1947. The tribes are their own army and police force, have their own tribal laws and customs dictated by the tribal elders and Mullahs, the religious leaders in this conservative Muslim region.

Very little is known about the five tribes of Kala Dhaka by western agencies – the Bassi-Khel, Nasrat-Khel, Aka-Zai, Hassen-Zai and Madda-Khel. And this is part of the problem. No accurate government figures are said to exist, some estimates say that Kala Dhaka’s population is around 160,000, while some claim it is almost double that figure. The people of Kala Dhaka are literally not on the map.

Yet the need in Kala Dhaka following the earthquake is borne out by two assessments conducted by separate Pakistani aid agencies invited to the area: One completed in January by ODC (Organisation for Development Co-ordination); the other three months later by BES (Bright Education Society).

Fourteen months on from the disaster, Jahanzeb explains there are no hospitals, little water in the mountains; extensive damage to homes and farmland and education is virtually non-existent. And those roads are a major issue hampering access, with their poor condition heightened by quake damage.

Zargul Khan, Member of the Provincial Assembly for Kala Dhaka, confirmed: “The people of Kala Dhaka are very poor and for centuries have been denied every facility. The earthquake has created additional hardship. A coordinated international response is needed, but it has not come.”

He also believes the Jirga and the Mullahs will support outside intervention, if handled sensitively and the region’s customs are observed.

“The people are calling for more help from international agencies, which I am also in favour of if aid is distributed inside Kala Dhaka with proper monitoring which allows full transparency,” he added. “And if the Jirgas of five tribes guarantee security to aid organisations working in the region, it will be so.”

Back on the mountainside, Jahanzeb said that all five tribes would welcome aid from outside agencies. The earthquake has brought large-scale hardship for the people of Kala Dhaka, compounding the problems of a region already recognised as one of the poorest areas in Pakistan, he explained.

Earthquake damage on the ground is still wide scale; reconstruction has not been completed, estimated at about 50 percent. People are still living in temporary shelter. Village elder Nazir Khan explains: “Building materials are very expensive. People have not been able to afford to rebuild. If the weather is hard, we will not have enough food, as we have not been able to fully recover all our farmland and store enough. We have no medicine. And the winter is coming.”

The government has finally agreed limited compensation of Pak Rs 50,000 (approx US $800) for almost 16,000 quake families in Kala Dhaka. But many have still not received the cheques, or claim the banks have withheld up to half the payment.

“We feel abandoned,” Bassi-Khel tribal elder Haydatullah Khan told IRIN. “Many families affected have not received anything and for those who have, it is not enough.”

District Co-ordination Officer Shakeel Qadir Khan agreed: “I am aware Kala Dhaka has a desperate need for development.” But he said Rs 680 million (US $11 million) had been made available in a joint programme between the US Embassy and Government of Pakistan to develop the infrastructure of Kala Dhaka. There is a Kala Dhaka Area Development Plan. Work is said to have begun on road construction, but so far there is no visible sign of any activity.

Raabya Amjad, public information Officer at the United Nations Resident Coordinator’s Office, confirmed no international aid agencies were currently working in Kala Dhaka. She said: “This is a tribal area and difficult for international aid agencies to travel to without an army escort due to security risks.”

The UN’s Resident Co-ordinator would look at any need assessments of Kala Dhaka and take appropriate action, she added.

Meanwhile, thousands of families in Kala Dhaka face the coming months of sub-zero temperatures without adequate support. The Pathan warriors of the Black Mountain tribes are famous for their fighting prowess, their code of honour and history of independence are to battle another harsh winter after the quake.

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