Page 325 - James Caan - The Real Deal

Chapter 32

Kashmir (2005–2006)

‘ Close your eyes for a moment and imagine the end of

the world. ’

n 8 october 2005 a massive earthquake hit Kashmir. Initial
O estimates reckoned it had killed 20,000 people and made a
million homeless. We now know it killed more than 80,000 people
and left more than three million without shelter.
I saw the news that night and, as I watched the first images come
through, I was devastated. I had been visiting Lahore every six
weeks, and knowing that the disaster had occurred only a few
hundred miles away made it feel peculiarly personal. I had some
sense of how chaotic life is away from the cities, and instantly knew
how difficult it would be for aid to reach the affected areas. But it
was more than that; I felt angry because the people of Kashmir had
endured a civil war for fifty years: hadn’t they suffered enough?
In the days that followed it became increasingly clear how hard
it was going to be to mount a relief effort: the area affected was
vast, roads and telecommunications had been destroyed, and many
of the people in the earthquake zone lived in mountain villages
that would take months for the emergency services to reach. What
made it even worse was the onset of the Himalayan winter: if

315