PTI  The picturesque Mansehra valley, whose
historical significance dates back to Emperor Ashoka and Alexander the
Great, has been relegated by a single stroke of nature's fury to the list of
heritage sites that perished, when the massive temblor struck this region.

Balakot, where Emperor Ashoka is believed to have interned as Governor way
back in 270 BC, was the crown of Pakistan's Mansehra valley with its green
terraced fields and scenic beauty, but is now reduced to a death bed with
bodies lying buried under tombs of twisted steel and concrete.

Historians here say that Alexander provided Balakot with a Kashmir link by
handing it over to Abisaras, the Raja of Poonch, after conquering it.

Now, a pall of gloom hangs over the town, whose famed green terraced
mountains have been turned into swathes of white devoid of grass by the
October 8 quake. The quake shook the mountains so loose that the white sand
and its broken rocks kept on sliding, perhaps due to relentless powerful
aftershocks even ten days after the quake.

"For this town and for us, the clock stopped after the quake. The last I
remember... We felt the earth shaking, the building caved in and the part of
my hotel slid into the river," said Arif Ahmad Khan, an employee of a hotel
that was built on the edge of Kanhar river.

Khan was lucky to be pulled out alive of the debris with a few injuries,
with no idea as to how many people still lay buried under the rubble of his
building.