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J&K Floods: Kins of victims still search for bodies

We know that they are not surviving, but we are searching them only to perform their last rites, says a flood victim.

army-flood Villagers near Pancheri and Nowshera are still looking for the bodies of their missing near and dear ones in order to perform their last rites.

Nearly a month after the large scale death and destruction caused by massive floods in Jammu and Kashmir, villagers near Pancheri and Nowshera are still looking for the bodies of their missing near and dear ones in order to perform their last rites.

While 66 people died when a bus got washed away in the flash floods at Rajpura Bhatta near Nowshera on September 4, around 40 villagers were buried alive after the entire Saddal village near Pancheri disappeared under landslides on September 6.

Among those who died when the bus got washed away, 14 dead bodies are still missing. The local villagers have formed small groups to search them in the nullah right from the site of mishap at Rajpura Bhatta to Beri Pattan near the Line of Control (LoC). “We know that they are not surviving, but we are searching them only to perform their last rites,” said Darbara Singh, one of the kins of the victims.

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Similarly, Army troops and police have resumed excavation operations to retrieve bodies of 26 villagers from near Pancheri area where Saddal village once existed.

After recovering 13 bodies during a fortnight long operation, members of the National Disaster Rescue Force (NDRF) had left the site saying that it was not possible to recover more bodies through manual excavation. However, as it was not possible to carry heavy machines there in the absence of any road link, sources said that the government decided to construct a kuchha road there from nearest motorable road at Thathli.

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The construction of 15 feet wide and 2 km long road by the Public Works Department (PWD) got completed four days ago, said PWD’s Executive Engineer U K Sharma. Now work is going on to recover bodies with the help of excavators, he added.

One more body was recovered on Tuesday, said Sarpanch of Panjar, Ramesh Singh.

First uploaded on: 01-10-2014 at 17:48 IST
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