'My Ammi will be waiting for me': Kashmiri victim Yasmeen
Pakistan Times National News Desk

ISLAMABAD: “Please call my Ammi [mother] or send me to my parents. They will be waiting for me,” cried 7-year-old, Yasmeen Bibi who is under treatment at Children’s Hospital, PIMS.

Shell-shocked Yasmeen, who belongs to Muzaffarabad, has lost an arm in the quake and cannot remember the name of her parents. She does not remember who brought her to the hospital and when.

With her head and hand heavily bandaged, a desolate Yasmeen is waiting for her mother to come take away her pain.

Talking to The Nation, Yasmeen, trying to recall the events, said, “I was in the room with my mother who was giving me breakfast,” Pausing for a while, she then continued, “Afterwards there were tremors and I cannot remember anything more.”

“I want to go to my village. I know my mother is waiting for me and she would be worried about me,” Yasmeen said with tears rolling down her face. “I cannot sleep here as I am used to sleeping with my mother.”

She said, “I can identify my village. There are a lot of buffaloes and a lot of people in my hometown.”

The name of her parents is unknown. Even her address is unknown. The constant barge of questions from the visitors’ make her cry but she stops when doctors and volunteers console her.

Cries were heard from the ward where unclaimed children have been admitted. Two other quake victims, Huma Kazmi, 12, and Zainab, 10, from the villages near Balakot, keep sobbing for their parents.

Their eyes are filled with fear but are they are hopeful that they would meet their family members again. Their hope has kept them alive.

Zainab, happily, does not remember what happened last Saturday morning. But Huma is aware that her whole family has been buried under the rubble. She is worried: “After getting treatment from the hospital, where will I go? Will I live here?”

“I have no relatives and my home has been destroyed,” Huma said. By Friday evening more than 600,000 children have been admitted at Children’s Hospital, after being rescued from the catastrophe.●