Army cordons off Anjar, says it's a mass grave

ANJAR: The Army cordoned off Anjar in Bhuj district, saying "there were no more survivors" of Friday''s killer quake, even as the area was rocked by a series of aftershocks on Wednesday. A district official said the decision was taken as the entire town with a population of 35,000 had been reduced to rubble. About 1,000 bodies have been recovered so far and mass funeral is expected to be conducted soon.However, other estimates put the town''s population, including in new settlements around it, at about 65,000 and the toll at 25,000, with most of the victims being women. Indeed, Anjar is now a mass grave. Every family has someone missing. An entire generation of some families have been wiped out with the death of 450 students and 50 teachers. They were buried alive while participating in a Republic Day procession through Datar Chowk. Crushed polythene flags show up from inside the rubble, accompanied by the stench of decomposed bodies, as the only testimony of the martyrs. Only 60-odd bodies have been removed as machines and men move about the debris, ignorant of who lies beneath them. While New Anjar - relocated in 1956 after an earthquake as a residential area within a 2-km radius - was comparatively unscathed, Datar Chowk, Khatri Chowk and Soni Bazaar, the commercial hub of old Anjar, resembled another Pompeii. The town did not receive any help till the third day after the quake. Now, however, it is the Army and the foreign -- Russian, Hungarian and German -- rescue teams that provide hope to the hapless relatives. The rescue teams are trying to find life under the debris with their sniffer dogs, sensors and other gadgetry. Anish Hirani has been coming here from Rajkot every day since January 26. He is looking for his fiancee, Mariya, and her family. ``I''ve spoken to the collector, everyone; nobody has removed even a stone,'''' he says, standing over his would-be in-laws'' collapsed house. Nafisa doggedly follows the German search-and-rescue team. ``My seven-year-old daughter is buried there, please, please look for her... please,'''' she wails. Twelve-year-old Mustafa is the only survivor of the Noorani family. ``I had gone to school for flag-hoisting and survived. My grandmother, father, mother and sister are buried there," he says pointing towards the debris. ``They were washing vessels in the chowk, they could be alive,'''' screams someone. ``My brother was pressing my father''s shirt, he could still be alive,'''' suggests another, pleading the foreigners to heed. ``Come here, eight people inside,'''' beckons another. As rescue operations go on, mild tremors rock the town again. But nothing stops Iqbal, who feverishly looks for his mama (maternal uncle) and 12 other friends, patiently extracting the grocery goods still stacked in the buried shop. Trays of halwa, cup cakes and cream-rolls from Jummabhai''s bakery lie about, covered in debris as Haji Osman Ismail, who lost his handicraft store and his family, recalls the earthquake of 1956. Yet this time, there is hope. The Russian and Hungarian teams have managed to remove four persons alive since Monday. Sixty-five-year-old Ameena Mausi is one among them.