Father, son killed in Nepal earthquake

Amir Karim Tantray and Ishfaq Tantry

Tribune News Service

Jammu/Srinagar, April 26

It was a day of mourning for a family of Simbal Morh at Miran Sahib on the outskirts of Jammu as the news of the death of father-son duo Sujaan Singh and Parminder Singh reached the area.

Relatives gathered in their house since the morning and were trying to console the family. The father-son duo died in Kathmandu yesterday when an earthquake measuring 7.9 on Richter scale hit the country.

It was a shock for everyone in the vicinity and a wave of gloom struck the area. Family members and relatives were yet to come to terms with the irreparable loss which they suffered.

Sujaan Singh (67) and Parminder Singh (31) had been running a Punjabi restaurant near Bhimsen Tower in the Seondhara area of Kathmandu.

Sujaan Singh and his younger brother had established the business 45 years back. The second generation of the family was joining the business now.

“When the tremor hit the area, Sujaan Singh and Parminder Singh were inside the restaurant. We tried to contact them, but to no avail,” said Gaganjot Singh, nephew of Sujaan Singh.

He said they contacted a person through SMS and asked him about the whereabouts of the father-son duo. He said the family got the information about the death of his uncle and cousin around 5 pm yesterday.

“Their bodies will reaching New Delhi by Sunday evening. The bodies will be brought to their home by Monday morning,” he added.

Sujaan Singh is survived by his wife, three daughters and a son. Parminder Singh is survived by his wife and eight-month-old son Harshpreet Singh.

Gaganjot Singh said their restaurant got damaged due to the collapse of Bhimsen Tower. When people went to carry out a search, there was no sign of the restaurant or any other thing around the tower, he said.

Most Kashmiris in Nepal were reported to be safe by the Jammu and Kashmir Police. A family in the Dalgate area located a missing member at a Kathmandu hospital with injuries.

Another Kashmiri youth hailing from Bandipora district in north Kashmir, who was on an official assignment and was reported missing, was located at the Everest base camp in a safe condition.

The Everest base camp was hit by an avalanche which was triggered by the earthquake that shook the  region on Saturday morning.

There was  no official record of the total number of  persons from Jammu and Kashmir who were putting up in Nepal when the earthquake  struck the  country.

Rough estimates put the  number of persons from the Kashmir valley in various parts of  Nepal between  1,000 and 1,500. Most Kashmiris there were engaged in the handicraft business.