My visit to the valley of Kaghan

I give my thanks to brother Khubaib Wahidi, the country director for the charity Muslim Aid in Islamabad, Pakistan, who arranged for my wife and I to go on a wonderful trip to the famous valley of Kaghan in the northern heights of Pakistan. It was not just a recreational trip, but a visit to see the great achievements of Muslim Aid in that area, which was hit by a devastating earthquake in Ramadan, 8^th October 2005.

On 17^th May we started our journey in the early hours of the morning, heading towards Haripur and Abbottabad and finally landing at Mansehra, where we visited the hospital constructed by Muslim Aid, and now being run by PIMA. We received a warm welcome from Dr. Qasim and his colleagues, who took us around the various sections of the two-storey building including the operation theatre, the labour room, the X-ray room and the laboratory.

An elderly female patient, occupying a bed, thanked Muslim Aid for all the facilities they had provided in such a remote part of this area. We were told that the fees charged for the services are at half of the normal rates asked for in other private hospitals. The building’s roof, with a number of concrete pillars standing uncovered, was a reminder to the donors to come forward and help in completing the third floor, which could be needed in the near future as an expansion for the services provided by this hospital. A small mosque with a minaret besides the main building encouraged us to offer two Raka’a in gratitude to Allah, for enabling us to achieve this target.

Travelling  ahead towards the heights of Kaghan, we passed through the 2500 feet-high city of Balakot, which after the earthquake that demolished it totally, has now been almost rebuilt  by big donor agencies, like that of Saudi Arabia and Turkey. We had the privilege of visiting the graves of two famous martyrs, Shah Syed Ahmad Barelvi in a small cemetery at the lower part of the hills, and that of Shah Ismail Shaheed at the high point of another hill. Both laid their lives fighting the Sikh occupation in May 1831.

Crossing the river Kunhar, we ascended higher and higher in our four-wheel drive Land Cruiser until we reached Jared, where brother Rida was waiting for us. Jared and the next village of Mahanderi were the last two places hit hard by the earthquake on the road to Kaghan and Naran. Around 800 people died in Jared alone.

Supervised by brother Reda, a local school teacher, Muslim Aid was able to contribute towards the rehabilitation work in this part of the valley which had been deserted completely by other NGO’s. High on the hills, four water tanks have been built, each one 8 by 8 feet in length and width, and 6 feet in depth. They store the water that flows to them through a pipe linked to a spring further up the hill. The water is then distributed through a number of pipes to the houses below. We visited two houses, built by Muslim Aid, among the many which had been flattened to the ground by the earthquake.

A lady with three daughters still at school welcomed us in the first house, which comprised of three rooms with a kitchen and toilets, a small veranda, and a courtyard being used as a small vegetable garden. Her husband was hit by a flying rock and suffered traumatic head injuries, leaving her as the sole bread winner of her household.

In a similar second house, an elderly man was seen with his four daughters and wife. A fifth girl had died in her bed as a small baby when the house collapsed on that terrible day. They were all thankful of Muslim Aid which provided them with a roof once again. Mr Reda told us how his own grandmother, while reciting the Qur’an, met her death by the falling of the roof on her fragile body.

We later advanced towards Naran, at a height of 8,200 feet, where we had to spend a night after a long and tiring day. The following day, we crossed a shaky wooden bridge to the other side of Bugnu village, where we visited a two-room primary school in dire need of better accommodation and furniture. We were told that the government had already provided the school with a new building, but it lacked the educational facilities including desks and tables. We promised the head teacher to help in this regard once we had returned to London. That day was our return journey to Islamabad through a different route from Abbottabad passing by Nathia Gali and Murree.

The whole area is full of outstanding beauty and picturesque scenes of pine and walnut trees. A number of waterfalls add to the pure snow-white waters of the Kunhar river, which takes its origin from the glaciers high up in the mountains and then flows into the gorges of Kaghan valley, passing through Balakot and then joining the Neelum and Jehlum rivers near Muzaffarabad.

Just before Naran we could see the snow-clad summits of Malika Parbat, which shelter Lake Saiful Maluk at an altitude of 3,220 metres, a famous tourist attraction 8 kilometres ahead of Naran. The small track leading to the lake is only passable by either jeeps, or on the backs of horses.

We came back with very pleasant memories of this trip. We had seen the amazing and highly-praised work of Muslim Aid, who had put all their efforts into rebuilding areas that the rest of the world forgot. We also saw the magnificent splendour of Nature, a creation of Allah to remind Mankind that if such marvellous beauty exists on our earth, how unimaginably spectacular will it be in the land known as Jannah?