J & K floods: IAF chopper pelted with stones; over 130,000 rescued, 43 dead in Kashmir

Srinagar: When calamity strikes, it doesn’t discriminate. This was on ample display when floods ravaged Kashmir. Along with civilian population, security forces deployed here from various parts of the country were also hit badly.

They lost their belongings and their weapons were damaged or left useless after water entered their camps across the Kashmir Valley.

Hundreds of AK rifles, INSAS rifles and SLR rifles, along with their ammunition, are still submerged at various places across the Kashmir Valley, so are bombs, hand grenades etc.

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Some reports said 26 AK rifles from an army camp have been washed away in the floods. In the area of Gogji Bagh in uptown Srinagar, one of the worst hit parts of the Valley, about 400 personnel of a central paramilitary force had to leave their camp after gushing waters engulfed it last Sunday night.

"We got orders to leave everything and save our lives," said one of them, explaining how weapons remained in the submerged building complex. With water level receding somewhat, they are now make rounds of their complex to locate the weapons.

"Rifles can made reusable again by oiling and servicing as also the ammunition. However, bombs and hand grenades would be of no use now," said another security man on condition of anonymity as they are not authorised to speak to media.

Similar was the fate of army camps in other places in the Valley.

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However, as they come to terms with what happened, their colleagues work almost round-the-clock to save marooned civilians and deliver relief material to those who refuse to come out of their submerged houses for fear of theft and looting.

"We start our operations to help the marooned people at 4 am every day and halt at midnight. Between midnight and 4 am, the boats are serviced," said Subedar Honorary Lt S P Singh of 103 Engineers Regiment, which is based in Jalandhar and was rushed here five days back to help in rescue and relief operations.

He, along with his colleagues Naik Nachitra Singh, Naik V D Bhonsle and Naik O P Patel, make rounds of various colonies of Rajbagh, Jawahar Nagar and Nowgam, in boats to ferry the marooned people as well as those evacuees who want to visit their homes.

"Our priority is to save children, women and unwell people," he says, while estimating that their regiment must have rescued at least 10,000 people so far.

Major Ashish Sharma, leading their operations, says about 250-300 people are rescued every day by them.

Besides rescue, they are also engaged in delivering food, medicines and other essentials to people who are marooned but do not want to leave their houses.

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Indian Air Force, on its part, has pressed into service 35 aircraft and equal number of helicopters to bring in relief supplies and evacuate people from the valley. These include heavy lift five C-130J and three C-17 aircraft, according to an IAF spokesman.

Relief material is brought from various places including Delhi and Chandigarh, and stranded people are taken to places where arrangements are made for their onward journey to their destinations, the spokesman said.

He said while initially the thrust was on rescuing people from marooned areas, now it has shifted to providing relief material. Union Health Minister HarshVardhan is visiting Jammu and Kashmir to take stock of medical relief operations in the flood-hit state.

Officials said that the Health Minister will reach Jammu on Saturday and oversee the on site relief operations there. He will visiting Srinagar tomorrow to review the relief work there.

The Health Ministry has earlier sent over 100 tonnes of medicines and other supplies besides teams of doctors and experts to flood-ravaged Jammu and Kashmir.

A 20-member clinical team comprising physicians, pediatricians and reproductive health specialists have been deployed in Srinagar. The ministry has set up a control room here to monitor the situation in the state round-the-clock.

"I got a call at about 11.45 am from my brother. He said the house had developed cracks and was sinking," Ganesh said. "Three to four minutes later when I called him back to ask him to leave immediately and take everyone with him, the phone wasn't ringing."

Ganesh, who was in Jammu, trekked 30 km the next day to reach the spot from Jammu but was shocked to see that the village was wiped out and there was just a mountain of boulders and mud.

Pointing towards a big rocky patch, Singh said, "That is where my house used to be. "Out of eight family members, two are alive today," he said.

Ganesh was away in Jammu and his father was in the field, the two survivors. As the information poured in, DIG, Gareeb Dass led by a team of NDRF, Police, Army besides a medical team flew to the site.

"It is very difficult operation to trace the bodies and dig them out despite a massive rescue operation being launched for past 5 days", DIG, Udhampur-Reasi, Range Gareeb Dass told PTI.

"The rescuers are battling to reach under a high mountain of boulders, rocks and sluge. Now we have decided to ask for some metal detectors or some equipment to trace the bodies so that drilling can take place in the area," he said.

In order to facilitate travel to the rescue site, Roads and Buildings Department Chief Engineers Abdul Hamid was tasked to set up a track for carrying dozers of cranes.

"We have been able to almost connect the area by a track to facilitated speedy operation," Hamid said.

Over 100 more families, who were rescued from the area, have been put in Model house, Agriculture Quarters, hospital and shops and relief material including food, water, biscuits, blankets and medicines were flown by IAF choppers and given to victims of the landslides.