Jammu Tawi, April 30:
Five persons have died due to flash floods and hitting by boulder at different places of Jammu division of Jammu Kashmir.
Five people, including three teenagers, lost their lives after they were swept away in swollen rivulets in the Jammu region since Sunday evening. Mohammad Shafi (65) and a 17-year-old girl lost their lives after they fell into fast flowing waters while crossing Deval and Dunga rivulets in Reasi district on Monday evening, said a police officer.
Even as men and machinery deployed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) worked overtime to restore the 270-km-long Jammu-Srinagar national highway (NH44) on Tuesday, the death toll from rain-related incidents has gone up to five since Sunday across Jammu region.
Five people, including three teenagers, lost their lives after they were swept away in swollen rivulets in the Jammu region since Sunday evening.
Mohammad Shafi (65) and a 17-year-old girl lost their lives after they fell into fast flowing waters while crossing Deval and Dunga rivulets in Reasi district on Monday evening, said a police officer.
While the body of Shafi was recovered, efforts have been initiated to trace the girl.
The girl, a resident of Gool, had come to Mahore to attend a marriage function.
The body of 13-year-old Yakoob Mir, a resident of Karool, was fished out on Tuesday from a river after he was hit by a rolling boulder from a hillock in Karool area of Ramban district on Monday, officials said.
The rainfall also triggered landslides at multiple places between Ramban and Banihal along the 270-km Jammu-Srinagar national highway which remained closed for vehicular traffic for the second day, the officials said. The drowning incidents were reported from Reasi, Ramban, Doda and Jammu districts late Monday evening. While four bodies were fished out by the rescuers, the search for a girl is still on, they said.
Kaushal Kumar drowned while crossing a stream at Gadhi Garh in the outskirts of Jammu city. The State Disaster Response Force and local volunteers recovered his body late afternoon, they said.
In Doda district, the body of Firdous Ahmad (13), a resident of Mallan-Dessa, was fished out from Kund Nallah on Tuesday morning. He was crossing the stream when he was swept away by the strong current, they said.
Heavy rains lashed wide parts of Jammu and Kashmir over the past couple of days, triggering landslides at many places and raising the level of water bodies. At least two dozen residential houses were also damaged in Kishtwar and Ramban districts.
In the Poonch district, four school children and two women were rescued by locals after they were left stranded due to flash floods in a stream when they were attempting to cross at Kalar Moda village in the Mendhar area on Monday evening, they said.
With the improvement in weather conditions on Tuesday, the officials said the restoration work on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway was intensified to ensure its early opening for vehicular traffic.
The traffic on the 270-km highway, the only all-weather road linking Kashmir with the rest of the country, was suspended from both the twin capital cities of Jammu and Srinagar on Monday following landslides, mudslides and shooting stones at several places including Mehar, Panthiyal, Moum Passi and Kishtwari Pather.
