Cloudbursts rip through Jammu’s mountains, 11 dead as Aug rain toll climbs to 122

JAMMU/SRINAGAR: Torrential rain and back-to-back cloudbursts unleashed flash floods and landslides in J&K Saturday, killing 11 people in Ramban and Reasi districts and pushing the monsoon death toll across Jammu division this Aug to 122. Among the dead: a couple and their five children buried alive in a mountainside home.In Ramban, floodwaters tore through remote Rajgarh village, flattening two family homes and a school. Additional DC Varunjeet Charak said: “Bodies of four people were pulled out from debris. Search for one missing person is underway.” Victims were identified as Ashwani Sharma, 24, his brother Dwarka Nath, 55, niece Virta Devi, 26, and guest Om Raj, 38. Nath’s wife Bidya Devi remains missing.In Reasi’s Badder village, a mud torrent swept away Nazir Ahmad, 38, his wife Wazira Begum, 35, and sons Bilal, Mustafa, Adil, Mubarak and Wasim, aged 13-5. “They were asleep when their mountainside house came in the path of a torrent of mud and water. They were buried alive,” an official said. Locals and police extracted all seven bodies from mounds of mud and stones.Union minister Jitendra Singh, LG Manoj Sinha, and CM Omar Abdullah expressed condolences and promised assistance to victims’ families. “Spoke to senior officials and took stock of the situation. Rescue and relief operations are underway,” Sinha posted on social media.Traffic on highways remained suspended for a fifth day, while scores of hilly roads lay blocked or washed out. The key Jammu–Srinagar national highway reopened partially Saturday to clear 3,000 stranded vehicles. CM Abdullah chaired a review meeting on road restoration and supply of essentials to Kashmir valley and remote regions. Opposition PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti urged a relief package “on the scale of the 2014 floods” with special focus on Jammu.Authorities sounded a high alert amid warnings of more intense downpours through Sept 2. Schools, colleges and govt offices — except essential services — remained shut since Aug 26.Rivers Jhelum, Chenab, Tawi, Ujh, Ravi, Sahar Khad and Basantar are in spate, flooding low-lying areas.Pilgrimage to Vaishno Devi shrine stayed suspended for a fifth day. Locals in Katra had protested the shrine board’s decision to allow the yatra on Aug 26 despite weather warnings. That day, a landslide near Indraprastha Bhojnalaya at Ardhkuwari — the midway point from Katra town to the cave shrine — killed 34 pilgrims, while four more died in Doda district as swollen rivers damaged 17 houses and swept away three footbridges.The disasters add to a grim Aug: 65 people died on Aug 14 when a cloudburst tore through a campsite at Chasoti village on the Machail Mata pilgrimage trail in Kishtwar. Three days later, a flash flood in Kathua killed seven, five of them children. A BSF constable was swept away on Aug 28 in Akhnoor sector.