Budgam landslide: Search op ends with recovery of 10-yr-old's body : The Tribune India

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Budgam landslide: Search op ends with recovery of 10-yr-old's body

SRINAGAR: With the recovery of 10-year-old Faisal’s body, the two-day search operation in Laden village of Budgam district concluded this afternoon.

Budgam landslide: Search op ends with recovery of 10-yr-old's body

Rescuers carry a flood victim’s body recovered from the landslide at Laden village in Budgam district on Tuesday. Tribune photo: Amin War



Ishfaq Tantry

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, March 31

With the recovery of 10-year-old Faisal’s body, the two-day search operation in Laden village of Budgam district concluded this afternoon.

A landslide had hit three residential houses early Monday morning in the village.

The Hajam family to which Faisal belongs lost 11 members in the tragedy. They along with five members of another family were buried in a local graveyard this afternoon.

A total of 16 bodies were found by the rescuers from under mounds of mud and slush at the site.

“The search operation in Laden village concluded today as the bodies of all 16 missing persons were found,” said Deputy Inspector General (DIG), Kashmir, Ghulam Hassan Bhat.

In the village, hundreds of panic-stricken local volunteers and rescues teams drawn from the police and the Army were busy clearing slush and mud to locate Faisal on Tuesday as all other bodies had been located by this morning.

With the recovery of 15 bodies from the mound of slush and mud till this morning, the rescuers were looking for Faisal’s body.

“Thirteen bodies had been retrieved by the rescue teams by Monday evening while two more bodies were recovered this morning,” said a police officer who was overseeing the rescue efforts since Monday.

Three houses, including the house in which the 16 members of two families had taken shelter, were hit by landslides triggered by incessant rain around 3 am on Monday.

The landslides had started in the village, a picturesque hamlet surrounded by lush green and snow-covered forests, much before the major tragedy struck on Monday morning.

The village witnessed incessant rain since Saturday afternoon.

The night before, five members of the Laldin’s family had taken shelter in the single-storey house of Ghulam Nabi Hajam, considering it relatively safe. Laldin’s house had developed cracks due to landslides.

When the tragedy struck, Hajam’s house had 16 persons inside, including 11 members of the Hajam family.

As the inmates of the collapsing house raised an alarm, neighbours rushed to the spot for rescue and started digging the site with bare hands.

The rescue teams arrived much later on Monday as the access to the village was blocked due to another landslide on the road leading to the hamlet.

“It was difficult for the rescue teams to reach the spot as they had to first clear the access road to the village which had been blocked by landslides. The only earth mover, which we were able to get to the ground zero, has been working round the clock,” the police officer said. He added that the difficult terrain and the topography were hampering the rescue effort.

As the word about the tragedy spread on Monday, rescuers and volunteers from neighbouring villages trekked more than two hours through forests and rugged terrain to reach the spot.

A day before the incident, the authorities had evacuated 16 families from Laden village due to the threat of soil erosion and landslides. Many of the evacuated are putting up in tents in the area.

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