Village Budhaal in Rajori district in absolute desolation and panic. 17 deaths !
There is an atmosphere of mourning and screaming in a village in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir after the death of 17 people since December 7. About 500 families live in this village named Budhaal.
But the situation is so bad that the villagers are waiting for people’s help to dig the graves of their dead relatives. There is a terrible desolation and panic in the entire village.
According to a report in The Indian Express, 65-year-old Jamaldin from the village said that people are so scared that no one is ready to even dig a grave here.
Jamaldin says that the children were playing on the land till a few weeks ago, today they have been buried under the same land.
Jamaldin’s grandson Mushtaq says that at least 10 to 12 people are needed to dig a grave.
Mushtaq says that this is my grandfather, but today we neither eat nor drink water in each other’s house. Mushtaq and his grandfather Jamaldin are waiting for people’s help to dig Yasmin’s grave.
Recently Yasmin died of this unknown disease. Her father’s name is Mohammad Aslam. Before this, apart from Mohammad Aslam’s aunt and uncle, five other children have died due to this disease.
Villagers said that this series of deaths in the village started after the wedding of Sultana, daughter of Fazal Hussain, a resident of the village, on December 2.
The villagers had gathered for Sultana’s wedding and the three families whose members have died so far are the families of Fazal Hussain, Mohammad Aslam and Mohammad Rafi.
A few days after the wedding, Fazal and his four children fell ill. He was taken to the Government Medical College Hospital in Rajouri but his condition kept deteriorating. After this, the doctors referred him to Jammu but Fazal and his children could not be saved.
The local administration became concerned about this whole matter when four members of Mohammad Rafi’s family reached the hospital with similar symptoms like mild fever and unconsciousness. All of them died during treatment. Villagers say that Rafiq and Fazal are relatives and both the families had attended the wedding.
Initially, doctors believed that it could be a case of food poisoning, but a month later, many other people from the same village came to the hospital after their health deteriorated and they also had similar symptoms. All these people also died.
The villagers said that when Fazal died, the villagers ate food at his house. After this, packets of sweet rice were sent from Fazal’s house to the houses of Mohammad Yusuf and Mohammad Aslam. A few days after this, many members of Mohammad Aslam’s family died of illness.
The shocking thing is that the reason behind the deaths in the village is not known, although teams of doctors from many big hospitals of the country have visited the village.
After the death of 17 people, the central government has had to form a team in this matter.
Due to panic in the village, people are locked inside their houses and the entire village has become completely deserted.
According to the news, an officer of the Revenue Department said that in view of the situation, orders have been given that the villagers should not organize any kind of community function at present.
Due to the persistent illness, several pre-scheduled weddings in the village have been postponed. The administration has also ordered the sealing of a Bawli in the village as some people say that the victims may have consumed water from this Bawli.
The team of the central government visited the village and met the families of the people who died of this disease. Earlier, teams from major medical institutions of India like PGI Chandigarh, National Institute of Virology Pune and National Center for Disease Control, Delhi have also visited the village.
The team had collected water and food samples from here. Doctors and experts had said in their report sent to the Jammu and Kashmir government that some neurotoxins have been found in the samples taken from the dead people.
( By Aashu Saxena)
