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MHA’s team reaches Badhaal village, meets victims’ families
The team, rushed by the Union home minister Amit Shah, reached the village around 11.30 am and visited the bereaved families, said officials
The high-level 16-member inter-ministerial team on Monday visited Badhaal village in Rajouri district and started the probe on deaths due to a “mysterious” illness that has claimed 16 lives in the area since December 7 last year.
The team, rushed by the Union home minister Amit Shah, reached the village around 11.30 am and visited the bereaved families, said officials.
“The team is headed by a director-rank officer in the ministry of home affairs. It reached Rajouri headquarters on Sunday evening and was briefed by senior health and police officers,” said a senior health official.
The team has been divided in two groups and the investigation has started, he added.
The “mysterious” illness claimed the lives of nine members of two families between December 7 and 12.
Experts from some of the most reputable institutions in the country have been tasked with managing the situation and understand the causes of the deaths.
Earlier, a Jammu and Kashmir government spokesperson said investigations and samples empirically indicated that the incidents were not due to a communicable disease of bacterial or viral origin and that there is no public health angle.
Police have also set up a 10 member Special Investigation Team (SIT) after certain neurotoxins were found in the deceased’s samples.
Rajouri district authorities have also sealed a spring in the village after its water was tested positive for some pesticides and insecticides.
Kotranka sub-division additional deputy commissioner Dil Mir ordered the sealing of the spring along with deployment of two to three security personnel round-the-clock at the water resource in the village.
Union home minister Amit Shah had on Saturday ordered the constitution of the inter-ministerial team to ascertain the cause of deaths.
“J&K health department and other departments probed the deaths but the exact cause has not been found yet. The home minister has constituted a team of inter-ministerial experts and they have reached here,” Lt governor Manoj Sinha told reporters.
The symptoms of the disease include fever, pain, nausea and loss of consciousness before death.
An official told HT that deaths are not linked to a communicable disease of bacterial or viral origin. “All samples have tested negative for any viral or bacteriological etiology,” he added.
However, the toxicological analysis conducted by CSIR-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research (IITR) has detected toxins in multiple biological specimens.
