Oxford System of Education School in Balakot, Pakistan, after the earthquake struck. CWS Pakistan/Afghanistan

Case Study 3: Local Heroes

Name: Liaquat Ali Khan
Dist: Balakot, North West Frontier Province, Pakistan
Date: 12 October 2005

Liaquat Ali Khan was the proud director of Oxford System of Education School in Balakot, in North West Frontier Province, in Pakistan. On the morning the earthquake struck, his school was in session, with teachers and students in full attendance in the classrooms.

When the earthquake struck he rushed to the school only to find that there were children in desperate need of help. They needed to be evacuated from the school building immediately. He along with Ghulam Sarwar, a local resident of Balakot, began the rescue operation and started moving the children out of the building. As they were doing so, the roof of the school building collapsed, crashing on the children, making the rescue even more difficult. Liaquat and Ghulam began pulling the screaming children out of the collapsed building. They were able to pull out 18 students one-by-one. Only two injured students were left inside when suddenly another strong aftershock came. This aftershock brought the whole building collapsing down, killing the remaining two children.

"The screams of the two children suddenly ended with the aftershock, I guess they both died. I still hear their screams and I know it will haunt me for the rest of my life," said Liaquat.

A note from CWS Pakistan/Afghanistan:
Each story that comes from the people affected by the earthquake seems sadder than the previous one, as does each person narrating the terrible ordeal that they had to face during the fateful earthquake. It only makes us think how can we help rebuild their lives? Can we ever help them come out of the trauma that they have endured? Can we provide them the kind of psychosocial care that they need? Yet amongst all these sad stories also come the stories of daring people who risked their lives rushing to save the lives of others, stories of “local heroes,” like Liaquat Ali Khan and Ghulam Sarwar.

Mindful of the trauma experienced by many of the survivors of the earthquake, CWS-P/A is in the process of drafting a psychosocial action plan that it hopes to implement during the rehabilitation phase of the disaster.

Back to South Asia Earthquake Response • Back to top