THE rescue operation to locate 20 people missing after a cloudburst in a village in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kishtwar resumed on Friday after remaining suspended for hours together owing to inclement weather, officials said. Seven persons were found dead and 17 others were rescued in an injured condition after the remote Honzar village in Dacchan tehsil was hit by flash floods triggered by the cloudburst in the early hours of Wednesday, damaging 21 houses, 21 cow sheds, a ration depot, a bridge and a mosque.

 

The rescue operation was interrupted by heavy rains late Thursday night and resumed around noon after slight improvement in the weather conditions, the officials said. The search and rescue operation gained momentum on Thursday after the Indian Air Force (IAF) pressed three helicopters from Jammu, Srinagar and Udhampur and made eight sorties, transferring relief load of 2250 kgs, 44 NDRF and SRDF personnel and four medical assistants besides evacuating two critically injured persons from Soundar to Kishtwar for specialised treatment.

 

An official of the disaster management said no helicopter sorties from Kishtwar to Soundar could mature since 6 am on Friday due to inclement weather. The IAF had stationed an MI-17 helicopter in stand-by mode at Kishtwar since Thursday, he said. Six teams of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) with sophisticated equipment are involved in the operation along with other rescuers from police, Army and local volunteers, the officials said.