The victims of 28 May, 1998 nuclear attacks are still officially unacknowledged and uncompensated. The Government of Pakistan had announced that there were only ‘ten households’ within the radiation range of the blasts in Ras Koh Mountain range, district Chagai and that they were moved. However, the facts show there were some villages with this range, and the people there were not fully guided and moved. They are suffering from different diseases like blood cancer, hepatitis, also abnormalities in their new born children because of radiations. Soon after the nuclear attacks, the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said, “I promise I will make Chagai a model district in terms of roads, hospitals, and other infrastructure in the country”, notes local journalist Muhammed Akbar Notezai.
Despite such promises nothing considerable has been done nor is the voice of the victims addressed. The government should learn from Fiji whose president Mr Bainimarama, in 2015, compensated his people who fell victim of radiations caused by British atomic tests in Karitimati Island. Similarly, 2011 disaster in Japan had caused the outflow of radioactive material to the nearby villages of the damaged nuclear plants. Those villages are now closed for year. Public safety should be the top priority of a government.
Muhammad Fahad
Lahore
