A teenager was fatally hit by a rock and two elderly women died of heart attack in Jammu & Kashmir on Monday afternoon as a massive earthquake hit the region. Several residents and soldiers have been wounded, scores of houses, bridges and roads developed cracks and communication system collapsed temporarily in the aftermath of the massive temblor. It was like the repeat of the earthquake horror the region witnessed exactly a decade ago when more than 700 people died in north Kashmir.
A control room has been set up at Civil Secretariat to monitor the situation.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a telephonic call to Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in the evening to enquire about the situation.
The CM directed the Divisional Commissioners of Kashmir and Jammu to monitor the situation and all Deputy Commissioners have been alerted to monitor the situation and ensure immediate relief to the affected people.
Reports said that 16-year-old teenager Muhammad Ashraf died and his father Ahmad Din was wounded when they slipped off a mountain ridge at Bathoi in Reasi district of Jammu. Ashraf hit a rock and died on the spot, sources said.
Two women are reported to have died of cardiac arrest at Bijbehara in south Kashmir and Baramulla in north Kashmir. The women have been identified as Zoona Begum, 65, a resident of old Baramulla town and Fatima Dand, 80, a resident of Bijbehara. Two soldiers deployed in Sopore town of north Kashmir were wounded when a bunker established in a house abandoned by a migrant Pandit family collapsed.
A police official said that at least half a dozen individuals have received minor injuries.
“It was the replica of situation what we witnessed on the morning of October 8, 2005 when a similar earthquake hit the region,” said journalist Rashid Rahi. “The buildings shook and seemed as if they would crumble to the ground,” he said.
Women came wailing out of their houses and offices. Some of them fainted on residential compounds. The traffic came to a grinding halt, electricity supply snapped and mobile phones went silent.
In Rafiabad, a vehicle crammed under a massive branch of a Chinar tree, which detached from the giant tree due to earth shaking.
A police officer said that several key buildings in Srinagar, including the newly-constructed headquarters of Crime Branch of police, several hotels and bridges developed cracks. The traffic on lone functional flyover in Srinagar was halted for several hours after a crevice was observed in it. The experts later declared the flyover safe for traffic.
The authorities said the telecommunication system was disrupted shortly after the earthquake because the electricity supply was immediately snapped. Reports of damages to residential houses, Government buildings, roads and bridges are pouring in from all parts of valley.
A minaret of a 700-year-old shrine of Khanqah-e-Moalla in old Srinagar tilted by a few degrees after which devotees rushed out of the shrine after the main building started to shake.
Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Basharat Bukhari in a high-level meeting reviewed the situation obtaining in the wake of massive earthquake and directed the administration to collect information related to loss of life and damage to public and private property across the State.
J&K DG of Police K Rajendra, Principal Secretary Relief and Rehabilitation Sandeep Nayak, ADGP Home Guards, Civil Defence Divisional Commissioner of Kashmir, IGPs, Kashmir Zone, and CID’s Deputy Commissioner of Srinagar were present in the meeting.