Central team continues probe into 17 deaths in remote J&K village

Rajouri/Jammu, Jan 21 (PTI) A high level inter-ministerial team continued its probe for the second day on Tuesday to ascertain the cause of death of 17 members of three families in Badhaal village of Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district, officials said.

The central team headed by a director-rank officer in the Ministry of Home Affairs spent nearly six hours in the village on Monday as part of the probe.

The team returned to Badhaal village this morning from Rajouri and resumed their activities like collecting samples, and interacting with surviving members of three families and the villagers, the officials said.

Home Minister Amit Shah has ordered the constitution of the inter-ministerial team to ascertain the causes of death in the three families linked to each other in the remote village, about 55 km from Rajouri town, between December 7 and January 19.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is likely to visit the village later in the day to take stock of the situation and interact 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.

The people in the village, having a mixed population, are hopeful that the probe will unveil the mystery behind the sudden death of 17 villagers, including 13 children.

National Conference leader and local MLA Javaid Iqbal Choudhary lauded the patience of the villagers in the face of such a big tragedy and their cooperation with the government and medical teams.

“Our villages are an example of communal harmony and all are praying that the investigators find a clue so that those who lost their members could know the reason for the deaths of their kin,” he said.

Surjeet Singh Thakur, a local resident said the entire village is in the grip of fear and grief but “we are standing together in this testing time”.

“We have been living in harmony and we are standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the bereaved families,” he said.

According to officials, the central team, in collaboration with the local administration, will work on providing immediate relief as well as taking precautionary measures to prevent such incidents in the future.

Experts from some of the most reputable institutions in the country have been arranged to manage the situation and understand the causes of the deaths.

The patients complained of fever, pain, nausea, intense sweating and loss of consciousness before dying within days of their admission to hospitals.