J-K CM expresses grief over deaths, asks why pilgrims not stopped

Jammu, Aug 27: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday expressed grief over the deaths in the Vaishno Devi landslide, and asked why officials did not stop pilgrims from treading the track when there was a warning of the calamity.

The death toll in the landslide has gone up to 32 with rescuers pulling out more bodies from under the debris, officials said on Wednesday, a day after the disaster struck the route to the hilltop shrine in Jammu and Kashmir’s Reasi district.

The pilgrimage to the shrine was suspended when the mountainside gave way and stones, boulders, and rocks came hurtling down around 3 pm on Tuesday, catching people unawares.

Talking to reporters here, the chief minister said, “We will have to talk about it later. When we knew about the weather, should we not have taken certain steps to save those lives? The weather warning had come to us a few days ago.”

He further questioned officials, “Why were these people on the track? Why were they not stopped? Why were they not moved to a safe place? This has to be discussed later. We feel sorrow over the loss of 29 to 30 precious lives.”

The landslide struck at a point about halfway along the winding 12-km trek from Katra to the shrine.

There are two routes up to the shrine. While the yatra had been suspended on the Himkoti trek route since Tuesday morning, it was going on the old route till 1.30 pm when authorities decided to suspend it till further orders in view of the torrential rain.