While a group of 150 pilgrims from Andhra Pradesh, who were stranded in the flash floods and landslides in Uttarakhand, safely reached New Delhi on Thursday, the State Government received confirmation of death of five pilgrims hailing from Visakhapatanam.
According to an official communiqué reaching Andhra Pradesh Government, five pilgrims had died at Rambanda near Kedarnath. They have been identified as Narayana Rao, Sitaramaswamy, Adilakshmi, Rama Rao and Shyamprasad. All of them were residents of Visakhapatanam.
According to another report five pilgrims from Nizamabad district were also missing. The news of the death of the five pilgrims added to the anxiety and concern of more than two thousand mother pilgrims from the State as there was no news about their safety.
It is more than a week that the pilgrims were stranded at different places in Uttarakhand and their communication links with their familes back home were severed. Some of them were in touch with their families three days ago but as the batteries of their mobile phones were discharged, they lost the touch.
The 30 pilgrims were accommodated at Andhra Pradesh Bhavan in New Delhi and arrangements were also being made to send them back to Hyderabad .