Kishtwar (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], August 17 : The Indian Army and disaster response teams are rescuing pilgrims stranded at the Machail Mata Temple after a cloudburst in Kishtwar district on Sunday that has killed at least 55 people.
Visuals from the site show army personnel evacuating stranded pilgrims and recovering bodies from the affected area.
Cleaning workers at the temple expressed their willingness to assist in relief operations. One worker told ANI, "On July 22, I went to Machail, and I am a cleaning worker there. Today I came back. Everything is closed there. People who had their carts and hotels are returning here. We also want to lend a hand (for the relief work). When we heard that many people were dead and missing after the cloudburst, we were shocked. We saw the images on social media."
Another worker estimated that around 100 people may still be stranded at the temple. He said, "I am a resident of Kishtwar and work as a cleaning worker. A lot of people have died, and we are still scared. If the mishap would not have happened, a lot of people would have been at the temple. There might be about 100 people there (in Machail)."
Expressing grief, he added, "I clean the temple. This should not have happened. There is nothing left to see, we are shedding tears."
Meanwhile, Punjab resident Mandeep Saini made an emotional appeal to the government to locate his wife and mother-in-law, who went missing in the August 14 cloudburst in Chasoti village. Saini had visited Kishtwar to drop his wife at her parents' home for Rakshabandhan on August 9. She went for darshan at Machail Mata Mandir on August 12, after Saini returned to Punjab.
He told ANI, "The remaining six people with them are coming back. It's been four days, and we still have no clue where the two of them are. My mind is not functioning. I last spoke to her at Udhampur station... All of us are really worried. I have only one request for the government: please locate both of them. I have no other request except to please find them."
General Officer Commanding Counter Insurgency Force - Delta, Major General APS Bal, said security forces are working to rescue as many people as possible. Highlighting the Indian Army's rapid response, he added that troops reached the site within 45 minutes of the disaster.