One Quake, Forty-Three Graves, The Silent Agony Of Khan Muhammad

In the narrow lanes of Mohalla Muslimabad in Wahid Garhi of Charsadda, a frail old man sits motionless on a woven charpoy, his eyes fixed on a point far beyond the crumbling walls around him. For 49 years, Khan Muhammad, a refugee who fled war-torn Afghanistan decades ago, has called this corner of Peshawar home. But today, his silence speaks louder than words.

Around him, neighbors gather to console him, offering whispered words of comfort, but he only nods faintly, lost in a storm of thoughts. Every few moments, his trembling hands rise instinctively in prayer, as though clinging to the only anchor left in a world that has just shattered for him.

Two nights ago, as the city slept, news reached Khan Muhammad like a thunderclap, his entire family back in Afghanistan had been wiped out. All 43 of his loved ones, children, brothers, sisters, were buried under the rubble when a monstrous earthquake leveled entire villages in Kunar.

Muhammad lost 43 close relatives in the earthquake that struck Afghanistan's Kunar province. The deceased include Khan Muhammad's two brothers, their wives, children, nephews, and nieces.

Among the victims was Khan Muhammad's 24-year-old son, Irfan Khan. Just days earlier, Irfan had been arrested from Rawalpindi's fruit market and deported to Afghanistan as part of the repatriation process for Afghan refugees. Only a few days after reaching Afghanistan, he was caught in the earthquake.

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“How do I go on when there is no one left?” a neighbor recalls him whispering, his voice barely a breath, his eyes hollow pools of grief.

For Khan Muhammad, this is not about deadlines for refugee repatriation, nor about the looming uncertainty of life in Pakistan, it is about an unthinkable loss that no human should ever endure.

The Disaster That Broke His World

The earthquake struck Afghanistan's eastern mountains on the dead of night between Sunday and Monday, ripping through remote villages in Kunar and Nangarhar. Entire communities were erased from the map. According to the Taliban government, more than 1,400 lives have been lost, over 3,100 injured, and 5,400 homes reduced to dust. Thousands are still trapped under debris.

The tremors did not just shake the earth, they crushed hearts like Khan Muhammad's, far beyond Afghanistan's borders.

A Crisis Beyond Borders

As Khan Muhammad clings to fading memories, the world scrambles to respond. UNICEF warns that“thousands of children are at extreme risk,” and has dispatched life-saving supplies, blankets, tents, medicines, and hygiene kits. The World Health Organization says the local health system, already fragile, is now“completely inadequate.”

Global pledges have poured in, Pakistan, China, Iran, India, the UAE, the EU, but most aid has not reached the mountains yet. Rescue efforts struggle against collapsed roads, freezing weather, and a race against time.

In Kunar, men dig through rubble with bare hands, praying to find a living soul.“I came looking for my friend,” one says, his voice breaking,“but there is only debris now.”

The Weight of History

For Afghanistan, earthquakes are a cruel recurrence. The Hindu Kush fault line has delivered tragedy time and again, from the 2022 Paktika quake that killed 1,000 people to the Herat disaster in 2023 that claimed 1,500 lives. War, poverty, and sanctions have left the country vulnerable, and every new disaster deepens an old wound.

And Khan Muhammad?

Back in Wahid Garhi, as dusk falls and the call to prayer drifts through the streets, Khan Muhammad finally speaks, his voice cracking:

“I could not bury even one of them with my own hands. Not even one.”

There are no words strong enough to ease such pain. His house in Peshawar stands, but his world has fallen.

And tonight, as he raises his hands once more to the heavens, the only thing he asks for is mercy, for those who left, and for those who remain to live with the unbearable weight of loss.

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