12 flats housing Kashmiri Pandits gutted in fire on Jammu outskirts

Twelve flats housing around six families of displaced Kashmiri Pandits were gutted in a fire on the outskirts of Jammu city on Tuesday.

The fire reportedly started in one of the old quarters in the Purkhoo camp area and quickly spread, they said. Fire service personnel and equipment were rushed to the scene to extinguish the blaze.

Though no one was reported hurt, most of the household goods and a two-wheeler were gutted.

“We have lost everything in the fire. Cash, records and gold. They were all destroyed. We are once again homeless,” said Naveen Pandita, a resident of the camp.

“Twelve quarters occupied by 5 to 6 families were gutted,” he said.

Pandita alleged that no one from the district administration or the Relief Department has come to assess the extent of the damage.

The migrants urged Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to provide them compensation on the pattern of the Warwan in Kishtwar.

“We want the intervention of the Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha ji,” Santoshi, another camper, said.