16th victim dies as police begin probe into ‘illness’ deaths in J&K’s Rajouri

Jammu, Jan 17 (SocialNews.XYZ) The toll in the ‘mysterious’ deaths in J&K’s Rajouri district rose to 16 as an elderly woman of Budhaal village died on Friday.

Officials said that the death toll in Budhaal village rose to 16 with the death of an elderly woman in a hospital on Friday. Sixteen deaths have occurred within 45 days in Budhaal village as samples analysed at various premier laboratories of the country have ruled out any viral or bacterial infection.

Officials said that 60-year-old woman, Jatti Begum breathed her last at government medical college Hospital in Rajouri on Friday.

J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Friday chaired a high-level meeting to discuss the alarming situation in Budhaal village of Rajouri district where 16 lives have died due to an unexplained illness. Omar Abdullah directed health and police departments to expedite their investigations.

“The unexplained nature of these deaths is deeply concerning and the government is committed to ensuring that the root cause is identified at the earliest. I urge all departments to collaborate and leave no stone unturned in resolving this issue,” he said.

Secretary/commissioner, Dr Syed Abid Rashid Shah briefed the chief minister about the steps taken to ascertain the exact cause of these deaths. He said the health department has maintained an active presence in the area over the past 40 days, providing ambulances, medicines, and essential facilities to address any emergencies.

He said that health department teams have conducted door-to-door surveys of over 3,000 residents in the affected area collecting and testing samples of water, food, and other materials. He informed that all test results including those for influenza and other possible contaminants, came back negative.

The meeting was informed that additional testing was carried out by premier national institutes, including ICMR, National Institute of Virology, National Centre for Disease Control, CSIR, DRDO, and PGIMER Chandigarh, but no definite cause for the deaths was identified.

Police officials informed the meeting that investigations are underway to determine the root cause of the fatalities, which have been limited to three families residing within 1.5 kilometres of each other.

The meeting was attended by Minister of Health & Medical Education, Sakina Itoo, Advisor to the Chief Minister, Nasir Aslam Wani; Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo, Additional Chief Secretary to the Chief Minister, Dheeraj Gupta; ADGP Jammu, Anand Jain, Divisional Commissioner Jammu Ramesh Kumar; Secretary Health & Medical Education, Dr Syed Abid Rashid Shah and other senior medical and police officers.

Source: IANS