Tag : Panjtarni

New Delhi: The death toll in the flash flood triggered by a cloudburst near the Amarnath cave shrine rose to 16 on Saturday while 15,000 stranded pilgrims were shifted to the lower base camp of Panjtarni, officials said on Saturday. Searches for the missing people continued without break after flash flood and landslides rummaged through tents and community kitchens on Friday afternoon. Senior officials said 25 injured people have been shifted to hospitals while many people are believed to be still trapped under the debris. According to an Army official, mountain rescue teams and lookout patrols and sniffer dogs have been pressed into the search and rescue operation. "Air rescue operations started Saturday morning and six pilgrims were evacuated by Army helicopters. The military medical teams are receiving patients and casualties at the Nilagrar helipad for onward evacuation," officials said. An Mi-17 chopper of the BSF's air wing has been pressed into service. The Jammu and Kashmir administration has also deployed advanced light helicopters for the rescue operations. A Border Security Force (BSF) spokesperson in Delhi said "16 bodies have been shifted to Baltal." The ITBP has expanded its route opening and protection parties from the lower part of the holy cave up to Panjtarni, a spokesperson of the force said. Additional Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police Vijay Kumar, who holds charge of the Kashmir range, reached the holy cave shrine on Saturday morning to supervise the rescue operations being conducted by security forces and the National Disaster Response Force. He said the rescuers were clearing the debris to look for survivors as the administration was cross-checking the data of pilgrims to get the exact number of cas ...