Rakibul Hasan
Yesterday I was browsing online; few watching movies and glancing morning newspapers though, while mostly sleeping, and two of them snoring in delta sleep on the Saturday holiday; reasons were perhaps no tensions of classes. However, I suddenly felt something was shaking, down my back. Our sleepy room did not care it first, but the vibration was continued and even intensified with the time passed. Being sure that nobody shoke the bed, which was dnacing but some of us subconsciously, became frightened and curious to know why?Since I experienced it for the first time in life and many of us so, I stood up and then legged down on the floor; nope! shaking continued then, first I thought someone else doing it funny, but later on, I heard massive chaos and running noises coming thru’ the windows and I looked down across it and saw students in a chorus were running in panic and then no way I got it clear; its quake; it was earthquake and ran down too on the ground, hassling through the crowded staircases, in avoidance of potential collapses of the building.
I ran down with my laptop and someone with other staff—trunk-boxes, cycles and electronic devices etc. Interestingly someone I noticed staring up above the roof to take refuge so that they can be rescued earlier in case of building collapse, as they replied later on.
Mama (mother), back home said, ‘water tided up in the nearby river and ponds. and houses vibrated terrifically. And I controlled myself hugging the timber of a larger tree, away from the house….’
A woman, Rokeya Khanam (Pabna), 50 died and many more are said to be injured in Bangladesh, while being evacuating from her home during the quake. At least 50 Garments workers were injured at Ishwardi EPZ during panic evacuations.
The US Geological Survey said the quake, initially measured at 7.7 but upgraded to 7.9 magnitude, struck 80 km (50 miles) east of Nepal’s Pokhara.
At least 50 garment workers were injured inside the 10-storey building of Al-Muslim Group at Ulail when the workers were rushing towards the exit when the tremor hit the country after 12:15pm, reports our Savar correspondent. The workers got panicked as they thought that their building was going to collapse like Rana Plaza, Rafique, a factory worker, told the correspondent. Moreover, at least eight students of Kalikabari Government Primary School were injured in a stampede while coming out of their two-storey school building in Dhobaura upazila, reports Daily Star.
At least two buildings were reported to develop cracks and tilt at the capital’s Banani and Banghsal areas. Similar incidents are also reported in Gazipur, Netrokona, Chandpur and Rajshahi and India’s Calcutta, Assam, Bihar, Darjeeling hill region and so on.
Contracting South Asian friends, we were shocked even more. Earthquake ravages Kathmandu! Let us pray to the Almighty to get us through this devastation and come together to work in unison to get through this disaster! Help is most certainly needed so let us all do what we can to help the thousands in need, said a Nepali, Anil Keshary Shah. The death toll in Nepal reached about 900, according to an official from Nepal’s Home Ministry, who was speaking on Indian TV, reports the Guardian.
(Rakibul Hasan studies masters on Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Dhaka. He can be reached at rakibeca@gmail.com)
