"Today, he lives in a tent on his own farmland. His house was destroyed nearly three weeks ago by the earthquake that has shattered the lives of thousands of others in this region. We are living in tent camps now, the 55-year-old farmer said, speaking at his cousin's shop in the nearby village of Noorgal. Our houses were old, and none were left standing They were all destroyed by big boulders falling from the mountain during the earthquake."
"We lost everything we have worked for in Pakistan, and now we lost everything here, Din adds. Until four months ago, he had been living in Daska, a city in Pakistan's Sialkot District, for eight years after fleeing his village in Afghanistan when ISIL (ISIS) fighters told him to join them or leave. I refused to join ISIL and I was forced to migrate to Pakistan, he explains."
Nawab Din returned to Wadir in Kunar province after eight years as a refugee in Pakistan and now lives in a tent on his farmland because his house was destroyed by the August 31 earthquake. The earthquake, magnitude 6.0, killed about 2,200 people and destroyed more than 5,000 homes. More than four million Afghans have returned from Iran and Pakistan since September 2023. Many returnees were deported during Pakistan's crackdown on undocumented migrants and now face displacement, ruined homes, and loss of savings and livelihoods after boulders crushed old houses in mountain villages.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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