Five killed in landslide on Amarnath Yatra route

SRINAGAR: Five people were killed and three others suffered injures in a landslide on the Baltal route of the Amarnath Yatra in Ganderbal district of Jammu and Kashmir late on Tuesday night, police said.

“A landslide hit between Railpatri and Brarimarg on the Baltal route,” a police official said.

Torrential rains with fast winds lashed Kashmir valley on Tuesday evening uprooting trees, electricity poles and damaging roofs of houses at many places in the plains.

Police said, “Road to Kargil was blocked at Aabmath (Zojila) due to a slide. While efforts were on to clear the landslide. Traffic and district police, district administration and Border Roads Organisation are on the spot.”

Five people, including four men and a woman, were killed, while three others were injured, police said.

Meanwhile, the identities of the deceased and the injured were yet to be ascertained and the bodies were being brought to the Baltal base hospital, the official said, adding that medical response teams were fully alert.

TOLL RISES TO EIGHT

With this the total death toll on Tuesday during the Amarnath yatra raised to eight.

Earlier, three pilgrims, including two from Andhra Pradesh, died en route to the holy cave shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir on Tuesday.

Thota Radhnam, 75, died due to suspected cardiac arrest in a community kitchen at Baltal base camp. Radha Krishna Sastry, 65, also died due to cardiac arrest at Sangam. Pushkar Joshi, a resident of Uttarakhand, who was hit by a shooting stone on Monday, succumbed at a hospital on Tuesday.

One BSF officer, one palanquin carrier and a yatra volunteer had lost their lives last week.

Since June 28, eleven people have died including a BSF jawan and a local palkiwala who would carry yatris towards cave shrine.

FLASH FLOOD HITS BALTAL BASE CAMP

Earlier, a minor flash flood hit the Baltal base camp of Amarnath Yatra on Tuesday evening, officials said.

However the district authorities confirmed that all yatris were safe.