E-Paper
Kishtwar cloudburst: Chances of finding survivors turn grim
Till Wednesday evening , seven bodies were retrieved and 17 injured were rescued. Among the 17 injured, six were shifted to Kishtwar district hospital in view of their critical condition
Forty hours on since a flashflood hit Honzar village in Kishtwar district following a cloudburst in the wee hours of Wednesday, there has been no clue of 19 persons, who are still missing.
While rescuers trawled through debris on Thursday in search of survivors, a senior police officer said, “Chances of finding any survivors look bleak.”
According to Jammu and Kashmir Police, 19 people are missing.
“Though our rescue teams are continuing with their search operations, the missing are feared dead,” he said.
On Thursday, teams of SDRF, NDRF, police and army couldn’t find any survivors or bodies.
Till Wednesday evening , seven bodies were retrieved and 17 injured were rescued. Among the 17 injured, six were shifted to Kishtwar district hospital in view of their critical condition.
“They removed trees that were uprooted by the flashflood with bare hands and ropes. Rescuers also used shovels to trace missing persons beneath the debris but it is a difficult task as thousand metric tonnes of rubble has accumulated there and earth movers cannot reach the village,” said the officer.
Honzar village has no road connectivity and it takes five hours of trek to reach the village from the nearest road.
There is no mobile phone connectivity in the area as well.
Additional director general of police Mukesh Singh accompanied by Jammu divisional commissioner Raghav Langer reached Honzar on Thursday to take stock of the situation and review the ongoing rescue and relief operations.
The police have established camps at Dangadooru and Soundar for dispatch of relief and rescue materials for the flood-affected people of Honzar.
Special teams for this purpose have been formed and deputed from the Kishtwar police lines.
Early this morning, another SDRF team was airlifted in an IAF helicopter from Jammu Air Force Station to Kishtwar for the ongoing rescue operation.
“Another joint team of NDRF and SDRF personnel, which left at 0545hrs from Jammu via road, reached Kishtwar and is heading to the affected village,” said a police spokesperson.
“One more team of SDRF and NDRF personnel with rescue equipment took off from technical airport Jammu and landed at Kishtwar by 1220 hrs. They have also reached the affected village and have joined the search operations,” he added.
Defence spokesperson Lt Col Devender Anand said, “In spite of prevailing bad weather, three helicopters of IAF — one each from Jammu, Udhampur and Srinagar — were utilised for airlifting SDRF and NDRF teams to Kishtwar.”
“Simultaneously, evacuation of critically injured people was done from Sondar to Kishtwar. The helicopters flew eight sorties ferrying 44 NDRF personnel, four medical assistants and recovering two stretcher patients from Sondar,” he added.
The government of Jammu and Kashmir has announced an ex gratia of ₹5 lakh each for the next of kin of those who lost their lives in the tragic cloudburst in Kishtwar.
The government will provide the grievously injured with ₹50,000 each while ₹12,700 to every injured person will be disbursed through the state disaster response funds.
Kargil-Leh national highway shut
The Kargil-Leh national highway (NH 1D) was shut temporarily on Thursday following a mudslide in Pashkum village in Kargil district on Thursday
