Posted on 02/01/2020 11:48:19 AM PST by nickcarraway
"There was nothing but horrible signs of death under the snow," Shakila recalls. "My 11-month-old daughter was on one side of me, and the dead body of my sister-in-law on the other."
Shakila's village, Surgun, was the worst hit in a series of deadly avalanches which killed more than 75 people in the Neelum valley in Pakistani-administered Kashmir in January. Dozens of others were injured and hundreds lost their homes. It was the remote valley's heaviest snowfall in a century.
Shakila spent more than six hours buried under snow - there was little warning the avalanche was coming.
"It was loud, like sudden thunder. I was sitting with my daughter in the open courtyard with a toy torch in my hand," she told BBC Urdu.
"My mother-in-law was inside with grandchildren; my sisters-in-law were busy doing house chores while children were playing. Nearby, my father-in-law was busy collecting wood. Suddenly, with a gust of wind, a huge heap of snow covered everything in sight."
Shakila was buried, along with her daughter Muqadas.
"Initially I couldn't work out what had happened, or if I was alive or not. I kept screaming, calling people to get me out. For an hour or so, I could also hear my other family members doing the same.
"Everyone was screaming. Children were crying. My parents-in-law were reciting verses from the Koran. But then gradually it all went quiet," says the 32-year-old.
Media captionLiving with loss after an avalanche in Pakistan She is being treated for multiple fractures in both her legs and her spine at a hospital in Muzaffarabad, the main city in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, about 100km (65 miles) away from Surgun.
It took rescuers up to three days to reach some of the villages hit by the avalanches in the Neelum valley, which lies
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
“My baby’s toy torch”
Something DID get lost in the translation! LOL!
Torch is a British word for flashlight.
Flashlight
But snow is meant to be a rare thing by now. What’s this talk of heaviest fall in 100 years
I KNOW!
Quite right, eh; that’s Britspeak for ya. I’m kinda partial to bonnets, boots and spanners.
Yep. They delivered the torch in a lorry and took it up to their flat in a lift. Why can't those people speak English?
“What an assh0l3.”
No, I’m only joking, one Airplane! fan to another.
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