As many as 400,000 people displaced by the raging waters of Indus have been forced to live under open skies in the searing heat of Makli. And their biggest grievance: nobody bothers about them.
“We will run out of food within a day or two,” said Sher Mohammed Mirbahar, a displaced person from neighbouring Chuhar Jamali. “We don’t know what will happen to us after that.”
Private donors bring in bags of grain or flour and bottles of water in quantities which are neither adequate nor distributed in an orderly manner.
“Every day we have to battle with the locals to get our share,” said Mirbahar. “They hit us with sticks. We are not animals, but human beings who happen to have fallen on bad times.”
Rahim Dino pointed to his blood-spattered Kurta (tunic). He had to fight for a bag of flour and he lost. “Why do we have to go through this — we are already down and out. But I have to fight as I have to feed my children.”
The local administration is virtually non-existent.