6 feared dead in Doda cloudburst

Ravi Krishnan Khajuria/TNS

Jammu, June 9
Six persons, including two shopkeepers, a driver of an earth mover, six roadside eateries and four vehicles were washed away in flashfloods triggered by a cloudburst at Baggar in Doda district, around 157 km from here, last evening.

However, Doda Deputy Commissioner Farooq Ahmed Khan has put the number of those feared killed in the incident at three. According to him, debris can be seen spread in an area of over five km, while one-km stretch of the Batote-Doda national highway (NH1B) has been affected at nine places.

The district administration, the BRO, the police and the Army launched a search operation to trace missing persons, but they could not find anyone till 11 pm yesterday, when the operation was halted, Khan said.

The operation was re-launched this morning and now the Batote-Doda road was being cleared. Those missing might have been buried under the debris, the DC said.

“The road is intact, but mounds of debris can be seen at several places. We are at work and the entire stretch will be cleared by tomorrow evening,” Khan said.

For the time being, the district administration has made an arrangement of transshipment by deploying buses at both ends of the affected stretch to ferry passengers.

The DC, however, feigned ignorance about any damage to the Baglihar hydroelectric project, around 26 km away from Baggar. “I don’t think that the cloudburst has caused any damage or posed any threat to the power project over the Chenab in Chanderkote,” he said.

However, a local journalist from Doda contradicted the claims of the Deputy Commissioner. “I travelled up to the affected area and found that the road between Batote and Assar has been washed away at several places,” he said. It would take at least a week for the administration to restore the road connectivity, he added.

As of now, the road link of Doda and Kishtwar districts has been snapped from the rest of the country, he added.

Doda SP Mohammed Arif Reshu also confirmed damage to the road, but added that there was scope of diversions at such places.

The Army has deployed a company of 4 Rashtriya Rifles, comprising 75 soldiers and officers, while the BRO has pressed into service its bulldozers to clear the debris. Though the administration has launched the operations on a war-footing, it cannot be immediately ascertained as to how many vehicles were swept away in the Chenab because of the massive mudslides. Three out of suspected six missing persons have been identified as Mohan Lal (22) of Rangarh (Baggar), Khalid Hussain (27) of Kurmail and Abdul Razaq (37) of Kurmail.

A resident from Chanderkote said though there had been no damage to the Baglihar dam and its second phase, at least 26 workers were trapped inside a tunnel near the existing power house and a security guard was buried under a heap of debris. The security guard was later identified as Vikram Singh, engaged by Dogra Placement Services.

Two dumpers outside the tunnel were also buried in the debris, he said. The workers, trapped inside the tunnel around 12.30 am yesterday, were eventually rescued around 5 am this morning.

TRAIL OF DESTRUCTION
Several vehicles, shops also washed away
Army, BRO, police launch rescue operations
Debris spread over 5 km area
Kishtwar, Doda cut off from rest of the country
26 workers trapped in Baglihar project tunnel rescued