Massive rescue and relief operation continued for the third day on Saturday in a remote Chisoti village of Kishtwar district, where 60 people lost their lives and over 100 others were injured in flash flood and mudslide triggered by the cloudburst.
Union Minister Jitendra Singh, accompanied by Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police (DGP) Nalin Prabhat, visited the devastated village late Friday night and reviewed ongoing rescue and relief efforts carried out by the police, army, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Border Roads Organisation (BRO), civil administration, and local volunteers operating in the high-altitude terrain.
Officials said so far 46 bodies have been identified and handed over to their next of kin after completion of legal formalities.
Meanwhile, 75 persons have been reported missing by their families, although locals and eyewitnesses claim that hundreds may have been swept away by flash floods and buried under giant boulders, logs, and rubble.
Officials have said the death toll in the tragedy is 60 but it is likely to go up.
Among the deceased include pilgrims, locals, two personnel of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and a Special Police Officer (SPO) of J&K police.
The disaster struck Chisoti—the last motorable village en route to the Machail Mata temple—at approximately 12:25 pm on August 14. It flattened a makeshift market, a langar (community kitchen) site for the yatra, and a security outpost.
At least 16 residential houses and government buildings, three temples, four water mills, a 30-meter-long bridge, and over a dozen vehicles were also damaged in the flash floods.
The annual Machail Mata yatra, which began on July 25 and was scheduled to conclude on September 5, remained suspended for the third consecutive day on Saturday. The 8.5-kilometre trek to the 9,500-foot-high shrine starts from Chisoti, located about 90 kilometres from Kishtwar town.
Rescue efforts were intensified with the deployment of nearly a dozen earth-movers by the civil administration and the use of specialized equipment and dog squads by the NDRF.
Officials said the help desk has been established in Paddar to share information to the relatives and family members of those missing in the fury.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also spoke to the Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Friday to take a review on the situation.
As the annual pilgrimage to Shri Machail Mata in Paddar was underway, the devotees were halted at the Chositi village—the last point to the yatra trek—for a community kitchen when the tragedy occurred.
Commenced on July 25 and scheduled to end on September 5, the Machail Yatra was immediately suspended after the cloudburst, they added.