‘Allah took away what he gifted’

His tears mingled with rain drops as he stood staring at the behemoth that killed four of his daughters — the monstrous mountain’ at khadi no 3, Sakinaka.

As the mosque sounded the afternoon prayer in the background, 43-year-old Ejaz Ahmed Ansari recalled July 26 when the ‘monstrous mountain’ turned his tiny two-room house into rubble.

He, his wife and two other young daughters, all of whom were outside the house working, survived the incident. They now sleep in the small welding shop they own in the neighbourhood.

A year later, Ansari is struggling to pick up the pieces. “I don’t even have a say. Allah took away what he himself gifted,” he said.

Sakinaka landslide at 3.30 pm on July 26 last year had claimed more than 65 lives. A year later, 138 affected families were yet to be rehabilitated, which demonstrated the failure of the state government, a survivor said.

A few, like Ansari, have not received the full compensation declared by the Centre and the state government. He is yet to receive Rs1 lakh relief for the death of his eldest daughter.

He, however, received compensation of Rs3 lakh for the other three daughters. “Look at the irony of life. A year ago I was planning to get my daughters married, but now I will have to fund the marriages of my other two daughters with the compensation received for their deaths.”