Vaishno Devi landslide: CRPF man dies while saving pilgrims
JAMMU: A CRPF personnel died after he was hit by a landslide near the cave shrine of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi in Katra town of Reasi district on Wednesday afternoon.
The deceased has been identified as head constable Harvinder Singh of 6 Battalion of CRPF, of Gallia village in Punjab’s Hoshiarpur district. Around 12.46 pm on Wednesday, when pilgrims were waiting at Gate Number 3 near Kalika Bhawan for their turn to pay obeisance, a landslide occurred.
“While the erosion of soil had already been noticed by an alert jawan, he asked the pilgrims to move to safer areas. As he was evacuating two women and a child, he got crushed under a big boulder,” said senior superintendent of police (SSP) Reasi Surjit Kumar.
He saved the lives of pilgrims but sacrificed his own life, said the SSP. He said the jawan was posted at Gate 3.
Kumar said no other pilgrims under the landslide. The SSP said the pilgrimage remained suspended for few hours but was resumed from an alternate route.
Four people, including three pilgrims, were killed and nine others injured in a similar landslide triggered by heavy rains enroute the cave shrine of Vaishno Devi on August 6. The landslide had occurred on Banganga-Ardhkuwari route around midnight and the debris fell on a shelter where the pilgrims were sitting.
Following frequent incidents of landslides and shooting stones, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board (SASB) had approached E Sreedharan, a member of the board and known for his pioneering works to establish the metro network in Delhi.
Consequently, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) had conducted a safety audit of the major infrastructure projects of the shrine board.
A high-level safety audit team of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation recently conducted the safety audit of infrastructure development projects being executed by the board.