Badhaal: Asserting that a probe is underway to unravel the mystery behind 17 deaths in this village of Rajouri district, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday assured people that all questions will be answered soon.
Talking to reporters during his visit to the village to express sympathy with the bereaved families, Abdullah said building big hospitals everywhere is not possible but inadequacy in the health sector at district levels will be addressed to provide better healthcare facilities to people in remote pockets.
Seventeen persons, including 13 children, belonging to three related families died under mysterious circumstances here between December 7 and January 19.
“Why has this happened? We need an answer to this question. It’s not a disease, so a police investigation is underway. They have formed a special investigation team and will complete their probe.
“The Centre has also deputed a team which is collecting samples and doing their activities. I want to assure all that the joint efforts of civil administration, police and the government of India will find out the answers to all questions about what had happened,” the chief minister said.
He said his government responded immediately on getting information about the tragedy.
“The health department mobilized its teams and also involved other departments…the district administration also tried to understand the reasons (behind the deaths).
“First, the focus was to know whether this is the result of any disease and in case it is a disease our biggest responsibility was to ensure that it does not spread. All the tests were conducted and the results revealed that there are no bacteria or viruses,” the chief minister said.
He said the investigation is ongoing and so far no concrete reason was found about the unfortunate deaths in the three families, mostly of children.
Asked about opposition criticism of his government over the handling of the situation, Abdullah said he would not like to do politics on such a happening.
“…Had we worked in haste and taken any wrong step, then you would have blamed us (for the deaths). The administration responded to the situation in a right way and the local MLA (Javaid Iqbal Choudhary) was there on the ground, taking the people into confidence and keeping them informed.
“We took time because we failed to establish the reason for the deaths. But we will expose the truth though it will take two or three more days and we have no issues with it,” he said, adding “we will come out with the answers to all the questions”.
The chief minister said he had talked to the deputy commissioner and the MLA who have given some suggestions which will be implemented soon.
Responding to another question about the need to improve health infrastructure, the chief minister said you cannot build big hospitals everywhere, which are sanctioned as far as need, population, requirement and situation.
“Big hospitals cannot be built in remote areas but we will try to address any shortcoming in community health centres, public health centres and sub-district hospitals with the passage of time,” he said.
Accompanied by Minister for Jal Shakti, Forest and Tribal Affairs, Javed Ahmed Rana and National Conference MLA Javaid Iqbal Choudhary, Abdullah assured all possible help to the victim families and said “we stand with you in this difficult phase”.
Soon after reaching the mountainous village, about 55 km from Rajouri district headquarters, Abdullah visited the graveyards and offered ‘Fateha’ (special prayers) to the deceased.
The chief minister expressed sympathies with the bereaved families including Mohammad Aslam who lost his six children and his maternal uncle and aunt, who were issueless and had adopted him, in the past week.
Aslam and his wife are the only survivors in his family.
CM Abdullah also met Mohammad Rafeeq, whose wife and three children died on December 12 besides the parents of Fazal Hussain who along with his four children were the first to perish in the unresolved mystery on December 7.
Among the 17 dead, 13 were children in the age group of three to 15 years.
The visit of the chief minister comes on a day when a high level inter-ministerial team is visiting the village as part of its probe to ascertain the cause of the deaths.
“There will be no shortcoming and whatever steps are needed will be taken. We stand with you in this difficult period of grief,” the chief minister said while interacting with the surviving members of the three families.
Abdullah said the government has tried its best to find out what is happening in the village, whether the deaths are not the result of any mysterious disease.
“The samples were picked up for testing and had it been any disease it would have been known. The deaths were restricted to three families related to each other,” he said, adding “we have to pay special attention that there are no further deaths in the village”.
The chief minister said police have also taken cognizance to rule out that the deaths were the result of the handiwork of someone.
“The civil administration, health department and police are carrying out the investigation and we also have the central team which has suggested some measures,” Abdullah said.
The chief minister said he had come to express his sympathies 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.
