THE overcast sky above our heads – from dawn to dusk – only added to the spookiness of the empty settlement.

On Thursday afternoon, as Cyclone Biparjoy triggered winds and high tides in the surrounding creeks, Shah Bandar resembled a ghost town.

The bulk of the populous had been evacuated, either moved to safer places on their own or landed in relief camps set-up by the administration and law enforcement agencies.

But a handful has stayed behind to guard their belongings and livelihoods.

While it may seem a foolhardy exercise, memories of 1999 are still fresh in this part of the country, when Cyclone 2A tore through Thatta, Umer Kot, Mirpur, Badin and Tharparkar, leaving a trail of death and destruction in its wake.

“Everyone has left these villages. We are staying for the livestock,” Syed Imam Bux, a resident of the Syed Allah Dino Shah village told Dawn. “We are keeping a close eye on things, and water from the nearby creeks has already started entering the villages,” he said.

“Look at all this water that has entered the village overnight. It is still rising,” his companion, the bearded Sher Mohammad says, while pointing to the seawater accumulating in the deserted alleys of one of the villages along Shah Bandar Road. At the time, it looked more like a marsh than a habitation.

Most families from Shah Bandar had been relocated to a government boys high school in nearby Chuhar Jamali, but sentries like Imam Bux and Sher Mohammad have to stay alert through the night.

“My vehicle is ready to go in case I have to leave because of impending danger. I will stay awake through the night to see if the weather is going to be rough. If it does turn, I will leave,” Imam Bux says.

The water has already begun to advance and is getting closer and closer to the villages. Along the shoreline, fishermen’s empty motorboats that had been parked on dry land now float in the water flowing in from the creeks.

Longing for loved ones

For Shah Bandar’s residents, the cyclone triggered memories of May 1999, when the people of this area lost a great deal. ‘2A’ was a strong Category 3 equivalent storm, killing 6,200 people in the country.

At the time, no attempts were made to evacuate residents before the cyclone made landfall. It also rendered 9,252 homeless and affected 657,000 people.

Many villages, including Haji Ibrahim Mallah, Haji Rab Nawaz, Mohammad Haji Baqadar, Zaman Jat and Ghulam Qadir, borne the brunt of Cyclone 2A’s destruction. They have all been vacated now.

Imam Bux recalls that 24 years ago, five men from the village of Haji Rab Nawaz Mallah had left for fishing just days before cyclone hit. They never returned.

“Then, a 22-strong search party was sent out to find the men who hadn’t returned after the cyclone, but they were taken in custody by Indian authorities,” he narrates. According to him, the men among the search party were released after two years, but the four villagers have never returned to date.

But where others may have given up on ever finding their loved ones alive, the people of Shah Bandar received a ray of hope when someone who had served time in an Indian prison recalled having met one of the original four missing fishermen – Deen Mohammad – in a hospital during his imprisonment.

“Deen Mohammad had told Hussain Mallah that he is from Shah Bundar and his case is not being tried in India.”

Coincidentally, Hussain Mallah – who was captured by the Indian authorities before the 1999 cyclone hit – has also reached the Chuhar Jamali relief camp.

He tells us that Deen Mohammad’s son was just a few months old when he went missing. “Now Deen’s son Nawab is a young man and has a son of his own,” he says.

With the trauma of these losses being so fresh in the minds of these villagers, it is not difficult to empathise with their trepidation of the storm that afflicts them today.

As darkness begins to fall, Imam Bux and Sher Mohammad take up their positions once again, watching and waiting for the sea to make its move.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2023