M S Nazki
One more minor hailing from Badhaal village of Rajouri district died on Wednesday, taking the death toll to 15.
In a related development, police have constituted a special investigation team to probe the death of 15 people, including 12 children, belonging to three families in the remote Kotranka area of the district.
Official sources told that 10-year-old Zabina Kousar, the 5th child of Mohammad Aslam, succumbed in SMGS hospital at 9 pm.
They said an 11-member SIT headed by the Superintendent of Police (operations) Budhal, Wajahat Hussain, has been constituted keeping in view the sensitivity of the inquest proceeding initiated into the deaths.
Earlier in the day, Minister for Health and Medical Education, Social Welfare and Education, Sakeena Itoo, said that investigations are underway to ascertain the actual cause behind these unfortunate deaths.
While speaking on the issue, Sakeena Itoo said that the entire team of health department visited the affected village and checked more than three thousand people door-to-door. She said that the teams collected samples of all kinds like water sample, food sample and other samples and sent the same for tests.
The Minister said that all the tests have been diagnosed negative. “All the sample tests that have been taken, whether it is water, food grains, rest of the things they used there including biscuits, whatever it is and all reports were found negative”, she said.
Even all the influenza tests have also been diagnosed as negative, she added.
The Minister further said that the health department got some samples tested outside through national institutes like ICMR, National Institute of Virology, National Centre for Disease control, CSIR, DRDO, PGIMER Chandigarh and others and all reports were found negative.
The Minister said that the deaths were among the three families in total living at a distance of one and a half kilometers from each other. She highlighted that during these 40 days, the health department kept all facilities available in the affected area like ambulances, medicines and other essential drugs to meet any exigency. “In 40 days, God forbid, a COVID disease comes, or some other infectious disease happens, it spreads. But there is no health-related issue found till date”, Sakeena said.
The Minister said that the matter was under investigation now and the police department and district administration will investigate further what the real issue is.
Itoo also expressed deepest condolences with the families of the deceased and assured the public that the government is treating this matter with the utmost urgency and seriousness. “The well-being of our citizens is our top priority and we will leave no stone unturned in uncovering the root cause behind these tragic deaths”, the Minister maintained.
She appealed the public to remain calm and extend full support to the district administration during investigation being carried out to ascertain the actual cause of deaths.
