2005 Earthquake: Child’s Remains Recovered 21 Years After Deadly Disaster in Balakot
Family finally lays five-year-old to rest after remains are discovered during excavation at their former home.
Family members lay a child to rest after his remains were recovered 21 years after the 2005 earthquake.
2005 Earthquake tragedy resurfaced in Balakot after the remains of a five-year-old child, who went missing during the devastating disaster, were recovered 21 years later while his family’s home was being excavated.
According to the family, Jamal Shafiq disappeared when their house collapsed during the October 8, 2005 earthquake. Despite extensive search efforts, relatives were unable to locate his body and eventually accepted that he had died in the disaster. They later offered funeral prayers in absentia.
For more than two decades, the family continued to live with the uncertainty of not recovering the child’s remains.
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The breakthrough came during excavation work for the reconstruction of the family home, when workers noticed pieces of clothing beneath the debris. As the rubble was cleared, the remains of the child were discovered.
The family recovered the remains, performed funeral prayers and laid the child to rest in a nearby cemetery.
Jamal Shafiq’s father said the boy had been trapped beneath the rubble when the house collapsed during the earthquake. Although the family searched for him for a long time, they were unable to find his body at the time.
He said the discovery of his son’s remains after 21 years had finally brought a sense of peace to the family after decades of grief and unanswered questions.
The 2005 earthquake, one of Pakistan’s deadliest natural disasters, claimed tens of thousands of lives and devastated large parts of northern Pakistan and Azad Kashmir.
