Grief prevails, sobbing loved ones still hope return of their dears
Sanjeev K Sharma
JAMMU, Sept 14: Grief filled mum with all including the concerned authorities appear tight-lipped, as there is almost no clue of the missing 32 pilgrims of Machail Mata, who among many others fell prey to the tragic cloudburst at Chashoti while on their way to the shrine of Goddess Chandi in mountainous Kishtwar district on the bloody day of August 14, when the calamity killed many pilgrims and left several others vanished with bodies of only a few of them recovered after some days of hard efforts. There is no sign of the unlucky 32 who are missing even till now.
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After the cloudburst, rescuers saved about 167 pilgrims and the tragedy killed 65 others while many were declared missing and severed limbs of some missing persons were also recovered by the rescuers from different places in the calamity hit area.
Though continued efforts are going on to find out the missing persons but the searchers so far have found no clue about them.
As the tragedy now has become about a month old, sources informed that the relatives of the missing persons are in deep grief and confusion over performing rituals associated with the deceased persons as they still hope that their missing dears may someday return in good health to reunite with their families.
Though the relatives and other loved ones of these missing people stayed for a few days at the spot of the tragedy and eagerly watched every breakthrough by the searchers but finding no achievement for days together, they left for their place after taking contact numbers of officials and officers of the administration, cops and some local reporters for updates of the search operations.
Leaving no stone unturned to find the missing loved ones, relatives of some lost pilgrims also posted photos and other details of the missing pilgrims on different social media platforms.
“Many times we get calls from the relatives of the missing persons who amidst sobs seek information about their lost loved ones,” Ajay Singh, a local reporter from Kishtwar informed.
He said that a relative of two girls from Jallandhar (Punjab), who were lost in the tragedy, rang him few days back asking if there was some information regarding the missing girls.
Some experts opined that the dead bodies might have decomposed as many days have gone or might have moved ahead in the river to some other place.
When contacted, Deputy Commissioner (DC) Kishtwar, Pankaj Sharma informed that all the debris from the cloudburst area have been cleared but there was no clue about the missing 32 pilgrims even as the search operations are being conducted daily by Apda Mitra (rescuers-searchers).
He said that search goes on at bank of the river to see if some dead body is trapped or struck somewhere under some rock.
However, Sharma ruled out the possibility that some animal could have taken away some of the bodies. “There are no such animals in the adjoining forests,” he maintained. On identification regarding recovered body parts, he said that people were not coming forwards for DNA matching which is creating problems.
“Our teams daily conduct search operations and will continue doing so till some 10-12 days more after which we will publish a month’s notice with photos of the missing people and their other details in newspapers,” the DC stated adding: “Only after that the missing persons will be declared dead following which process for their insurance claims and other things will start.”
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