No arrangement to airlift bodies of Amarnath Yatris

Jammu, July 14: Inspite assurances by the Jammu and Kashmir government, there are no adequate arrangements to evacuate bodies of pilgrims who died due to lack of oxygen on the high altitude route to the holy Amaranath Shrine.

Thirty three pilgrims have so far died since the Yatra comminced on June 10 this year. Most of the pilgrims died of cardiac arrest due to lack of oxygen at the high altitude.

The relatives of deceased are facing hardship in getting the bodied of their kin because there are no arrangement to airlift the bodies by police or Amaranath Shrine Board. Thus it is taking days to bring the bodies through the hilly routes to base camps at Baltal and Pehlgam.

Since June 10, 15 and 18 pigrims have died at Baltal and Pahalgam respectively but none of the bodies were airlifted deopite the assurance given by the government before the start of pilgrimage.

''I am facing a lot of problems for getting the body of my younger brother Vinod Kumar Gupta (22), who died of heart attack on Thursday morning. We did not even get information from the authorities about mishap and came to know about it only from the friends of Vinod who were accompaning him,'' Raj Kumar Gupta, who arrived here from Mumbai this morning, said.

''I have been waiting for body of my brother. The body has remained at Baltal even after 24 hours of his death,'' he added.

At the start of Yatra, the board had claimed that they had contengency plan worked out for the pilgrims but the reality has turned out to be different with all the relatives of deceased facing hardships in getting the biodies for last rites.

Police sources confirmed that Vinod, resident of Vile Parle in Mumbai, died yesterday morning at around 1100 hrs but his body could be lifted only today with two other bodies of pilgrims, who died Wednesday evening, through 'palaki' around 1200 hrs.

Meanwhile, the authorities reported that one more pilgrim, Man Mohan Gandhi from Jalandhar, died this morning while enroute to the shrine. Arrangements are being made to bring his body to base camp at Baltal Talking to UNI, Tufail Mantoo, the deputy chief executive officer, attributed the delay in getting the bodies due o inclemant weather including incessant rain and snowfall, including incidents of landslides. ''However, we are ensuring that the bodies to be handed over to the families as soon as possible,''he said.

UNI