A 22-year-old college student from Baruipur in South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal is among the 16 people who died in the flash flood near the Amarnath cave shrine in Jammu and Kashmir on Friday.
Barsha Mahuri was missing from Friday and her body was recovered on Saturday, officials said here on Sunday.
According to Mahuri’s family, a group of six persons from Baruipur had left for Amarnath Yatra on July 1.
Barsha Muhuri, her mother and maternal uncle were in the group of six. “Since the cloud burst incident on Friday, there was no trace of Barsha Muhuri and her group members. One of them has died, while others have been rescued. Barsha’s body will be brought back to Kolkata on Monday,” said Vikash Dutta, the local TMC councillor in Baruipur.
During the flash flood on Friday, Barsha got washed away as she tried to save her mother, said sources.
With the Amarnath yatra being temporarily suspended, tourists from West Bengal are finding themselves trapped there.
As per state officials, who are in touch with the rescue teams in Amarnath, the route to the cave shrine has been damaged and repair work is on.
Among those stuck there include police personnel Prabir Karmakar. On July 1, Karmakar, a resident of Kolkata Leather Complex police station area, left with a group of 70 people, including his family. He said in a video message that they were stuck on their way to the Amarnath Cave. “We are stuck in Pulwama. We are panicking. We request the government to rescue us,” said Shrabanti Rai, another tourist from West Bengal’s Bally in Amarnath through a video.
Around 40 people are still missing since Friday’s cloudburst incident.
One of the stranded tourists is Rajiv Haldar, a businessman from Barasat in North 24 Parganas. According to his family sources, a group of 10 people left for Amarnatha Yatra on July 4, Rajiv Haldar was one of them.
Haldar, reportedly got injured in the Amarnath cloudburst incident. He injured his leg, said his family members. His family also claimed that they were not able to communicate with him properly.
Rajiv Haldar’s wife Tapsi Haldar said, “We just want him to return home safely. We could only speak to him one or two times since the incident. The state government should take appropriate action in this regard so that the stranded pilgrims can be brought back to Bengal in good health.”