Death toll reaches 290, may go up as 362 still missing

Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Sept 20: Death toll in worst ever floods and rains in Jammu and Kashmir today touched 290 and was well set to go up with recovery of more bodies from Srinagar as flood water started receding while number of the persons missing in the floods including those from within and outside the State has gone up to 362 though 90 persons including a Brazilian tourist were traced today.
Official sources told the Excelsior that with the recovery of more dead bodies in Srinagar with slight receding of flood waters in many localities, the total death toll in floods in the Kashmir Valley has reached 75. With 215 deaths reported from Jammu province, the toll stood at 290 but, sources said, it could go up as 362 persons were still untraced as per data compiled by the State Government and some of them could be dead.
A number of persons from Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha were among those missing.
Sources said many bodies could be buried under the collapsed houses and rescue teams and volunteers were searching them. There were reports with the Government that some bodies have washed away to PoK from river Jhelum during the floods.
“Taking all these reports into account, the death toll could well cross 300. We are keeping our fingers crossed. We are revising the death toll only when our officials were confirming recovery of the bodies,” they said but admitted that the death toll could be higher going by the number of 362 persons still untraced even after a fortnight .
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today returned to twitter after 13 days saying he will try to tweet updates when possible but said he has been giving regular updates to All India Radio (AIR) about the death toll, missing persons etc.
He announced that his official email ID gupkar@gmail has been transferred to his office to handle volume of messages received during the floods and all will be read and actioned. “There is limited and very patchy internet access, not able to access anything. Those who want to write can mail at gupkar@gmail.com as this account has been forwarded to my office,” he said.
However, Omar appealed to media that while their criticism is welcome “but please try and get Government point of view too as it’s only fair”.
Among the foreign tourists, the Government today rescued a Brazilian woman adventurist Lucy Aruzau from tourist resort of Pahalgam, where she had taken shelter in the house of her friend, brought her to Srinagar and airlifted her to New Delhi. The Brazilian tourist had gone missing in the fields and the State Government got a report of her missing from Brazilian Embassy.
Soon thereafter, the authorities swung into action, established contact with her in Pahalgam and airlifted her to New Delhi.
Meanwhile, sources said, the number of persons missing since worst ever floods hit the Kashmir Valley has gone up to 362 and it was rising. The number stood at 362 this evening notwithstanding the fact that 90 persons from out of a total of 347 reported missing since last night were traced today and re-united with their families.
All 90 missing persons traced were in Kashmir. They hailed from Srinagar and some other States and distress calls about their missing had been received by 24×7 Jammu and Kashmir Connect Centre operating from the office of Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Nodal Officer for Connect Centre, Amit Sharma, Special Secretary Animal and Husbandry Department told the Excelsior.
Sharma said the number of missing persons has gone up to 362. Of them, 356 were missing in Kashmir and 6 in Jammu. The persons, who were missing in Jammu, including two each labourers from Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Karnataka while among the persons reported as missing in Kashmir, majority were locals but some of them were outsiders, who were working there as labourers.
Sources said the messages about the missing persons have been passed on to all Deputy Commissioners, SSPs and other senior officers with their last halt point given by their family members to trace them. The Connect Centre has also received a call from Dr Harpreet Saini from Australia, who wanted to know about the whereabouts of his father Ravinder Singh Saini and three other family members putting up at 8-C Jawahar Nagar, Sharma said, adding all of them were missing so far. He added that another call was received from New York in America to know about the missing persons.
Sharma said nine persons of a family of Aijaz Ahmad were traced within five hours of getting a distress call from their family and reunited a day later.
Sources admitted that in view of a large number of persons (362 till late this evening) still missing even after a fortnight of the tragedy, the death toll could go up. They said the rescue workers and volunteers were clearing debris to look for the bodies.
The Connect Centre has asked the mobile operators to publicize their helpline numbers so that they could register more complaints of missing persons, if any.

Follow our WhatsApp channel