Shutters down: Traders remember 2005 earthquake

BALAKOT: To mark the 10th anniversary of the earthquake that shook the northern areas on October 8, 2005, the traders of Balakot have announced a shutter-down strike on Thursday. This was decided at a joint meeting of members from the Anjuman-e-Tajran Balakot and other small groups of traders such as the mobile association in Balakot on Sunday. Information Secretary for Anjuman-e-Tajran Balakot Ikram Mughal said the traders discussed the plight of communities in the area affected by the earthquake. They talked about how the government failed to fulfil its promises of reconstructing damaged structures. “Hundreds of schools, health facilities and housing units have been left incomplete, due to which the communities remain exposed to a myriad of hardships,” he said. A delegation of traders will meet the tehsil nazim for Balakot, Haji Rustam Khan, on Monday (today) to plan an event commemorating the anniversary in the coming week.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 5^th, 2015.