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Home ministry forms team to investigate deaths due to ‘mysterious illness’ in J&K Rajouri
The mysterious illness has left 15 members of three inter-related families dead in the Budhal village of Rajouri district in the past 45 days.
Union home minister Amit Shah on Saturday ordered the constitution of an inter-ministerial team to visit Badhaal village of Jammu and Kashir's Rajouri district where 15 people died due to a “mysterious illness" over the past six weeks.
The team will be headed by a senior Union home ministry officer and consist of experts from the ministries of health and family welfare, agriculture, chemicals and fertilisers, and water resources, an official statement from the ministry said.
The team will also be assisted by experts from the animal husbandry, food safety and forensic science labs.
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“The team would proceed on January 19 and in collaboration with the local administration would also work on providing immediate relief as well as taking precautionary measures to prevent such incidents in future,” the statement said.
“Experts from some of the most reputed institutions of the country have been arranged to manage the situation and understand the causative factors of deaths,” it added.
Rajouri's mysterious illness
The illness has left 15 members of three inter-related families dead in the Budhal village of Rajouri district in the past 45 days.People complained of fever, pain, nausea and loss of consciousness before dying within days of their admission to hospitals. A girl continues to remain critical.The incident came to light on December 7, 2024, when a family of seven fell ill after a community meal, resulting in five fatalities.
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On December 12, a family of nine related to them was affected, claiming three lives. Exactly a month later, on January 12, a family of 10 fell ill after consuming another community meal with six children requiring hospitalisation. Of them, five children have died, and the sixth is critical.
The police have also sealed the three houses of the affected families at Badhaal village. These houses are located in the vicinity of 1.5 km from each other.
The Jammu and Kashmir government has said that the incidents are not due to a communicable disease of bacterial or viral origin and that there is no public health angle.
