60 dead, over 100 injured in Kishtwar cloudburst: Rescue operations continue for 3rd day | Srinagar News
NEW DELHI: A coordinated rescue and relief operation entered its third day on Saturday in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kishtwar district, where a massive cloudburst killed at least 60 people and injured more than 100, officials said. Union minister Jitendra Singh, accompanied by Jammu and Kashmir’s Director General of Police (DGP) Nalin Prabhat, visited the affected village late on Friday night to review the ongoing rescue efforts.
The operation involves the army, police, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Border Roads Organisation (BRO), civil administration and local volunteers working in high-altitude terrain. Authorities said 46 bodies have so far been identified and handed over to families. Families have also reported 75 people missing, although locals believe the toll may be higher, with many swept away by flash floods or buried under debris.
Among the dead were two personnel of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and a Special Police Officer (SPO).
What we know so far
The cloudburst struck Chisoti village—the last motorable point en route to the Machail Mata shrine—around 12.25pm on 14 August. The floods flattened a makeshift market, a community kitchen (langar) set up for pilgrims, and a police security post.
Officials said at least 16 houses and government buildings, three temples, four water mills, a 30-metre bridge, and more than a dozen vehicles were also destroyed. The annual Machail Mata yatra, which began on 25 July and was to continue till 5 September, has been suspended for three days. The pilgrimage involves an 8.5-kilometre trek from Chisoti to the shrine at 9,500 feet.
Eyewitness account
Subash Chander, a devotee who has been undertaking the yatra for 34 years, said he was serving langar when the disaster struck. “We heard a loud sound,” he recalled. “But due to the cloudburst, a huge slide of mud, boulders and trees came crashing onto the building. Had we not run out, we would not have survived. Two to three people in another building died on the spot. I was trapped in the debris for around six hours.” He added: “Nobody came for one hour (for rescue), but after that, the Army and the locals arrived to rescue us.”
60 bodies have been found: Omar Abdullah
Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah told ANI, “Around 60 bodies have been found. The number of missing persons is being assessed.” He added that an inquiry would be held after rescue efforts conclude to examine “whether the administration could have taken any preventive steps when the Met Department had issued a warning and also advised people not to venture out if not needed”.
The CM said personnel from multiple forces and political workers were “working on the ground” and that the Centre had assured “all possible help”. Union minister Jitendra Singh, who visited the site, wrote on social media: “After a long, tedious uphill drive, managed to reach the site of the cloudburst disaster in Kishtwar, very late, around midnight.” The Indian Air Force has also been placed on standby with two Mi-17 helicopters and one Advanced Light Helicopter in Jammu and Udhampur for relief operations.
Nature is testing us: PM Modi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his Independence Day speech on Friday, expressed solidarity with those affected by natural disasters across India. “Nature is testing us… Over the past few days, we have been facing natural disasters, landslides, cloudbursts, and many other calamities. Our sympathies are with the affected people,” he said from the Red Fort.
