The body of a five-year-old boy who died during the October 8, 2005 earthquake has been recovered 21 years later during excavation work in Balakot.
Jamal Shafiq was buried under the rubble of his family home when the earthquake struck. Despite extensive search efforts by his family in the months following the disaster, his body could not be located at the time.
The discovery occurred on Monday when workers began digging to reconstruct the house. During the excavation, workers first spotted the child’s clothes in the debris. They cleared the remaining rubble to retrieve the body.
Following the recovery, funeral prayers were held for Jamal, and he was buried in a nearby cemetery.
His father, Qari Shafiqur Rehman, stated that the family had searched the rubble for several months before eventually halting their efforts. He shared that the discovery brings closure after more than two decades of grief and uncertainty.
“After spending 21 years in grief over my son’s disappearance, I have finally found peace after finding his body and being able to bury him,” Rehman said.
The 7.6-magnitude earthquake, which struck on October 8, 2005, remains the deadliest natural disaster in Pakistan’s history. The epicenter was located near Muzaffarabad in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, but the tremors caused massive destruction across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, completely flattening towns like Balakot. According to official figures, the disaster claimed over 73,000 lives, left more than 128,000 injured, and displaced approximately 3.5 million people.
