SRINAGAR: Three pilgrims including a five-year-old boy and a local ponywalla were killed and nine others including a 10-year-old boy were injured when a huge rock, part of a landslide, ripped apart a shelter en route Mata Vaishno Devi shrine at a height of around 5,200 feet in Trikuta hills near Jammu overnight, officials said on Saturday.
Reports said that a big stone rolled down and hit the victims near Gate Number-3 of the cave-shrine at a point called Adhkuwari at 1.30 am.
The deceased have been identified as Shashidhar Kumar, 30, from Bengaluru, Bindu Sahni, 32, and her five-year-old son Vishal, of Durg (Chhattisgarh) and Muhammad Sadiq, the 34-year-old ponywalla from Mansa Taanda in Akhnoor area of Jammu and Kashmir.
Abhay from Aligarh who is seriously injured was rushed to Community Health Centre in Katra, the base-camp to the cave-shrine.
The CEO of the Shri Mata Vaishnodevi Shrine Board, Ajeet Sahu, said that the landslide triggered up Banganga-Ardhkuwari road and the debris fell on a shelter where the pilgrims were sitting.
He said that a rescue operation was launched immediately after hearing about the incident and that ex-gratia is being paid and arrangements for shifting bodies made. The yatra to the cave shrine, which was disrupted for some hours, later resumed, the SMVDSB officials and police said.
