CM Abdullah Visits Village Hit By Mysterious Deaths In J-K’s Rajouri; Assures All Possible Help

Badhaal: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday visited the Badhaal village in Rajouri district to express solidarity with the bereaved families whose 17 members, including 13 children, died under mysterious circumstances in the past one-and-a-half month.

Accompanied by Minister for Jal Shakti, Forest and Tribal Affairs, Javed Ahmed Rana and National Conference MLA Javaid Iqbal Choudhary, Abdullah assured all possible help to the victim families and said “we stand with you in this difficult phase”.

Soon after reaching the mountainous village, about 55 km from Rajouri district headquarters, Abdullah visited the graveyards and offered 'Fateh' (special prayers) to the deceased.

The chief minister expressed sympathies with the bereaved families including Mohd Aslam who lost his six children and his maternal uncle and aunt, who were issueless and had adopted him, in the past week.

Aslam and his wife are the only survivors in his family.

CM Abdullah also met Mohd Rafeeq, whose wife and three children died on December 12 besides the parents of Fazal Hussain who along with his four children were the first to perish in the unresolved mystery on December 7.

Among the 17 dead, 13 were children in the age group of three to 15 years.

The visit of the chief minister comes on a day when a high level inter-ministerial team is visiting the village as part of its probe to ascertain the cause of the deaths.

“There will be no shortcoming and whatever steps are needed will be taken. We stand with you in this difficult period of grief,” the chief minister said while interacting with the surviving members of the three families.

Abdullah said the government has tried its best to find out what is happening in the village, whether the deaths are not the result of any mysterious disease.

“The samples were picked up for testing and had it been any disease it would have been known. The deaths were restricted to three families related to each other,” he said, adding “we have to pay special attention that there are no further deaths in the village".

The chief minister said police have also taken cognizance to rule out that the deaths were the result of the handiwork of someone.

“The civil administration, health department and police are carrying out the investigation and we also have the central team which has suggested some measures,” Abdullah said.

The chief minister said he had come to express his sympathies with the bereaved families.

Earlier, a Jammu and Kashmir government spokesperson said investigations and samples empirically indicated that the incidents were not due to a communicable disease of bacterial or viral origin and that there is no public health angle.

A Special Investigation Team was set up after certain neurotoxins have been found in the samples of the deceased.

Authorities recently sealed a spring in the village after its water tested positive for some pesticides/insecticides.