A Kashmiri girl holding her brother strolls at a makeshift camp in Muzaffarabad. (Reuters).

ISLAMABAD, November 4, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The monster earthquake that devastated Pakistan on October 8 has cast a pall over `Eid Al-Fitr which starts Friday, November 4, in the Muslim country and the festive mood was overtaken by the tragedy which killed more than 73,000 people, making it one of the deadliest tremors in recent history.

Locals and officials alike are preoccupied with one and only thing now: rebuilding a country in ruins and providing for some 3.8 million people hit by the killer earthquake, scrapping traditional `Eid activities.

With devastated villages still not reached and shelters still needed to protect the displaced from the elements in freezing temperatures, the mammoth task ahead has brought together Pakistanis from all walks of life and of different ideologies.

Pakistanis like all Muslims worldwide mark the end of the fasting month of Ramadan by dressing up in new clothes and visiting family and friends but there was little festivity at a tent camp for homeless survivors in the ruined city of Muzaffarabad.

"This `Eid I have no clothes and no shoes but what matters most is, this `Eid my father is dead," 10-year-old Sana, camped out at a tent village on a sports ground near the devastated university in the capital of Pakistani Kashmir, told Reuters.

"I've lost everything. I don't know how many days I will sit here because everything is gone," said Sana, who was living with her mother and grandfather.

Pakistani Kashmir and adjoining North West Frontier Province bore the brunt of the 7.6 magnitude quake, which also seriously injured more than 69,000.

It was the strongest to hit South Asia in 100 years.

"I don't know what God will decide," said a baker in his 40s. He lost his shop and home in the quake and is now living in the muddy tent settlement in Muzaffarabad, the city closest to the quake's epicenter.

"This `Eid I will read prayers and stay with my family but how can I celebrate?" the man asked.

President Pervez Musharraf called on people in a Thursday evening holiday message to celebrate `Eid with simplicity this year and make generous donations to help quake survivors.

Quake survivors sit by a tent in Hattian Bala. (Reuters).

Qazi Hussain Ahmad, the chief of Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan's biggest religious party in parliament, held prayers near Muzaffarabad's biggest tent city for refugees.

He said thousands of the group's supporters will spend the three-day holiday with some of the bereaved families in solidarity.

They are planning to distribute aid packages among their deeply distressed fellow citizens to bring back a smile that was wiped off by the catastrophe.

Tens of thousands of Muslims also filled mosques and open ground in Indian Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar for Eid prayers on Friday.

"Allah, listen to our prayers today. Help those in need of shelter and food," said the imam at the main mosque in the city, as people held their hands high to pray for victims.

Former Pakistan cricket captain Imran Khan, now a politician, visited Muzaffarabad and hailed what he described as the country's unprecedented response to the disaster.

"The show of solidarity and the spirit, I've never seen this in Pakistan before. It makes me feel very proud of being a Pakistani," he said.

A separatist politician from Indian Kashmir, Yasin Malik, said he hoped India and Pakistan, which have gone to war twice over Kashmir, would show flexibility to ease people's suffering.

"I expect India and Pakistan will show more softness in this human issue to allow people to help each other," said Malik, who has spent the past month visiting earthquake-hit communities in both Indian- and Pakistani-controlled parts of Kashmir.

The old rivals have agreed to open five points along their border in Kashmir from Monday, October 31, to help with quake relief.

Malik, a former psychology student, said he had been trying to help people cope with their anguish.

"I came to realize that only relief cannot work here. These people need emotional and psychological support.

"I've tried my level best to give them this support. I sit with them in their tents so that they will overcome and start their lives afresh."