Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, July 25: Three persons were killed and 11 others injured as cloudburst hit Baltal base camp of Shri Amarnath Ji Yatra in Central Kashmir’s Ganderal district last night.
Around 100 vehicles were damaged and around 50 tents and four community kitchens were washed away in the flash floods.
Reports said that the cloudburst struck near Baltal along Zojila mountain range, however, it mostly affected the service area of the camp and yatri tents were not affected.
The cloudburst snapped communication links at four places between Sonamarg and Baltal and thousands of yatris are stranded.
Soon after the incident, senior, civil, police and Army offiers besides the yatra camp director NDRF, SDRF immediately swung into action to carry out search and rescue operations.
The tents housing the pilgrims mostly remained unaffected but around 800 pilgrims were moved to an Army camp.
As per the estimates around 100 vehicles, around 50 tents and shops and the parking area outside the main gate of the Base Camp was damaged.
Three bodies have been recovered and they have been identified as Deepak Singh son of Gopal Prasad of Sunder Nagri, New Delhi, and the two children-Pooja 13, daughter of Prakash and Vikram 12, son of Kailash.
The families of the two children had set up road side kiosks on the track leading to the Yatra Camp.
A seriously injured person, Abdul Karim, of Shopian, who was working as a Ponywalla, was air lifted early this morning to SKIMS Srinagar for treatment.
The search and rescue operations have been launched by Army’s 24 RR and Police last night.
Due to the flash floods, the Sonamarg-Ghumri road was closed for vehicular traffic as the thoroughfare has suffered damage at several places due to landslides.
The Border Roads Organization has been directed to deploy its men and machinery to remove blockades and ensure the earliest possible opening of the road.
Following the cloudburst at Baltal, Army’s 15 Corps GOC Lt Gen Subarta Saha along with senior Army officers visited the base camp and reviewed the situation.
Brigadier G S Kular, Commander 3-sector Army said that Army carried massive rescue operation soon after the cloudburst. “We have recovered three bodies in last night’s cloudburst. Seven are still missing. Our effort is to search them. There are slides at 4 places from Sonamarg to Baltal. Army engineers are making their efforts to restore the communication. Yatris are trapped on both the sides at Baltal and in Sonamarg. 15 tents and 2 vehicles have been washed away. We have rescued Yatris and around 800 are in our camp only”, he said.
The pilgrimage has continued from both the Pahalgam and Baltal routes, 2940 persons left from Chandanwari Access Control Gate and 1276 persons from the Domel Access Control Gate by 11 am this morning. Helicopter services from both Pahalgam and Neelgrath helipads are also operating and over 2200 Yatris had paid obeisance at the Holy Cave by 12 noon today.
Governor has expressed grief over the loss of precious lives and conveyed his heartfelt condolence to the families of those killed. He has asked CEO to arrange immediate payment of ex-gratia relief of Rs 1 lakh each to next of kin of the deceased persons.
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