The Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah visited Budhal village on Tuesday (Jan 21) to meet the families of the 17 individuals who tragically lost their lives in what the government has been calling mysterious deaths. Omar Abdullah Expressed profound grief and assured the bereaved families of full support and assistance by his government.
Omar Abdullah stressed that the government’s priority is to ensure the prevention of such incidents in the future and immediate end to a spate of unfortunate deaths. He assured the public that a detailed investigation is underway to determine the cause of the tragedy.
“The civil administration and health department are actively addressing the matter, while the police have constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the incident. Additionally, a central team has been deputed and is working diligently to uncover the reasons behind this unfortunate loss of life,” Omar Abdullah said.
The Chief Minister confirmed that the proposal for compensation is under active consideration and pledged timely action. Omar Abdullah also directed Deputy Commissioner Rajouri, Abhishek Sharma, to extend all necessary support to the families during this difficult time.
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Omar reassured the public that the findings of the investigation will be made transparent and that appropriate measures will be implemented based on the results.
“I appeal to everyone to allow the concerned agencies to perform their duties. Identifying the reasons behind these tragic deaths is our utmost priority, and we are committed to taking steps to prevent such occurrences in the future.” he added.
The Jammu and Kashmir government had consulted many experts from the Union Territory and different parts of the country to look into the investigations and it was given out by these experts that after carrying out extensive microbiological studies no viral, bacterial or microbial infection was found to cause these deaths. These were found to be localised and possibly having some epidemiological linkage.
It was also given out that certain neurotoxins were found in the samples of the deceased persons which is under further investigation .
It is pertinent to mention here that from December 7, 2024 about 17 deaths out of 38 affected persons have been reported from the village Budhal of District Rajouri.
The tests were conducted on different samples in some of the most reputed labs of the country. These include National Institute of Virology Pune, National Centre for disease control New Delhi, National Institute of Toxicology and Research Lucknow, Defence Research Development Establishment Gwalior, the Microbiology Department of PGIMER Chandigarh besides the ICMR-Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory, GMC Jammu.
The Jammu and Kashmir administration has taken various steps and deployed a medical team along with the food safety department to collect food and water samples. They have also organised medical camps, mobile medical units, door-to-door screening, and deployed rapid action teams in the area. Various teams of experts including epidemiologists, microbiologists, and others from DHS Jammu, GMC Jammu, and Rajouri, visited the area to conduct detailed screening and collect contact tracing samples.