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Leh:
Rescuers today pulled out more bodies trapped under the debris of
the town devastated by cloudburst in which the toll has gone up to
130 even as relief teams tried to access far-flung villages in this
high-altitude terrain to search for 600 others missing.
A transport aircraft of the IAF
carrying relief material, including blankets, dry food material,
medicine and other immediate requirements of the affected people
landed here, a defence spokesman said.
He said the armed forces have launched massive rescue and relief
operations for the victims of the devastating cloudburst here. "We
have recovered 130 bodies so far and at least 370 are injured.
The number of missing is yet to be ascertained," State Police Chief
Kuldeep Khoda said, adding the toll may go up. Sources fear that the
death toll could cross over 500 as several remote villages were yet
to be accessed by rescue teams.
A small village before Choglumsur, which bore the brunt of the
incessant rains, was completely wiped out as rescue workers were
looking for survivors in the mud slush and debris. Over 200 people
were still reported to be missing from Choglumsar, 13 kms from here.
A contractor told senior state administration officials that 150
labourers employed by him were missing from Shyong village where he
had lodged them. The colony was set up along Indus river and the
officials feared that many huts would have been washed away in the
flash floods.
The Army has been asked to give an account of local and outstation
labourers. Authorities said that the Army had suffered losses in
Turtuk area.
Some of the villages along the Chang La pass, world''s second
highest motorable road, were also believed to have been washed away
in the torrential rains. Union Minister Farooq Abdullah reached the
area this morning from Kashmir.
Later two of his cabinet colleagues -- Ghulam Nabi Azad and
Prithviraj Chavan -- also reached here after making an earlier
unsuccessful attempt to land. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had
yesterday visited the affected areas and made an on-the-spot
assessment of the situation.
Army spokesman Colonel J S Brar told PTI that rescue operations
which had slowed down due to heavy rains have picked up again.
Police, Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBP) and civil
administration are collectively involved in the rescue operation.
"Police and ITBP have established camps in the affected area. Civil
administration is helping to its maximum," Brar said.
"Among the injured, 300 have been treated.
The other injured are treated in army hospital.
The 31 Army jawans missing haven't still been located. We found a
body," he said.
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