Not missing in Ramban, 3 of Lucknow family murdered; rain, snowfall in J&K

A man pushes his wheel cart during rains in Jammu. -Excelsior/Rakesh
A man pushes his wheel cart during rains in Jammu. -Excelsior/Rakesh

Gopal Sharma
JAMMU Jan 19: Ramban police has stalled the search operation of the three missing members of Lucknow family on the highway in Ramsu sector as they were murdered in their home city by a close relative, while rain and snow fall lashed many parts of J&K today.
Police in Ramban had been carrying wide scale searches around Ramsu area of the mountainous district for the last couple of days to locate three members of Lucknow family after receiving a social media message that the trio was “incommunicado” having got stuck there. However, as the facts surfaced, all the three of them had been murdered in home town and the alarm regarding them having gone ‘missing’ on Jammu-Srinagar highway at Ramsu turned out to be false.
SSP Ramban Mohita Sharma told that UP counterparts have informed police here that the trio was murdered in home town.
Pertinently police on January 16 evening had started the searches after one member of the family from Lucknow informed through social media that the trio on way to Kashmir had gone incommunicado after purportedly getting stuck at Ramsu area amid a huge landslide along the highway.
The kin had identified the trio as Mehmood Ali Khan (65), Darakshan (52) and Shavez Khan (26). The police in Lucknow have arrested the elder son of Mehmood Ali Khan for the tripple murder for property.
Meanwhile, Meteorological Department (MeT) today forecast a possibility of light rains and snow on January 22 and 23 in Kashmir. However, the Weatherman said that there is no forecast of any major snowfall till the end of January.
“The weather in Jammu and Kashmir will mainly remain dry from 24 January onwards till end of this month while spell of light rains or snowfall is likely during January 22 and 23 with 60 percent chances of downpour,” a MeT official said.
The official said that today the weather was partly to generally cloudy in both the regions, while light rains and snowfall occurred at scattered places in Jammu and Kashmir. “As of today, there is no forecast of any major rain/snow till the end of January,” he added.
Meanwhile, Srinagar recorded 2.7 degrees Celsius against last night’s 1.1 degrees Celsius while Pahalgam recorded minus 1.9 degree Celsius.
Gulmarg recorded a low of minus 6.0 degrees Celsius as the minimum temperature. Qazigund settled at a low of 1.3 degrees Celsius.
Drass town recorded minus 19.2 degrees Celsius, Leh minus 11.4 degrees Celsius and Kargil minus 11.6 degrees Celsius as the night’s lowest temperature.
Pertinently, Kashmir is under the 40-day long period of harsh winter cold known locally as the ‘Chillai Kalan’, which started on December 21, will end on January 31.
Meanwhile, dense fog continued to envelop plain areas of Jammu, Kathua and Samba districts for the last couple of days, while cold wav conditions have wreaked havoc in the region. The day temperature has witnessed sharp fall from the normal temperature in Jammu city. The dense fog continued to hit vehicular and train traffic besides delaying the air traffic at Jammu airport. The light rain in many parts of Jammu this evening and fresh snowfall on the higher reaches brought down the temperature.