Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday visited the Badhaal village in Rajouri district to express solidarity with the bereaved families whose 17 members, including 13 children, died under mysterious circumstances in the past one-and-a-half month.
Accompanied by Minister for Jal Shakti, Forest and Tribal Affairs, Javed Ahmed Rana and National Conference MLA Javaid Iqbal Choudhary, Abdullah assured all possible help to the victim families and said “we stand with you in this difficult phase”.
Soon after reaching the mountainous village, about 55 km from Rajouri district headquarters, Abdullah visited the graveyards and offered 'Fateh' (special prayers) to the deceased.
The chief minister expressed sympathies with the bereaved families including Mohd Aslam who lost his six children and his maternal uncle and aunt, who were issueless and had adopted him, in the past week.
Aslam and his wife are the only survivors in his family.
CM Abdullah also met Mohd Rafeeq, whose wife and three children died on December 12 besides the parents of Fazal Hussain who along with his four children were the first to perish in the unresolved mystery on December 7.
“There will be no shortcoming and whatever steps are needed will be taken. We stand with you in this difficult period of grief,” the chief minister said while interacting with the surviving members of the three families.
Abdullah said the government has tried its best to find out what is happening in the village, whether the deaths are not the result of any mysterious disease.
“The samples were picked up for testing and had it been any disease it would have been known. The deaths were restricted to three families related to each other,” he said, adding “we have to pay special attention that there are no further deaths in the village".
The chief minister said police have also taken cognizance to rule out that the deaths were the result of the handiwork of someone.
“The civil administration, health department and police are carrying out the investigation and we also have the central team which has suggested some measures,” Abdullah said.
Probe continues:
A high-level ministerial team constituted by the central government continued its probe on Tuesday to trace and find out the cause of death of 17 people, including children of three families, in Badhaal village of J&K’s Rajouri district, officials said.
The high-ranking official in the Ministry of Home Affairs spent approximately six hours in the village trying to trace out the causes. The team returned to the village this morning and resumed their activities, like collecting samples and also meeting the three families of surviving member’s and the villagers, officials said.
Home Minister Amit Shah has ordered the constitution of the inter-ministerial team to ascertain the causes of death in the three families linked to each other in the remote village, about 55 km from Rajouri town, between December 7 and January 19.
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