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  1. Forty-four cremations in the last 48 hours and the villagers in Rajpur Bhatta are still looking for the dead. On September 4, when they gathered at the house of Sukwinder Singh to join his baraat, no one imagined that his three-year-long love story with Jatinder Kour from nearby Laam would have such an end. They had travelled barely 2 km from home when Sukwinder, 24, was dead and so were 63 others in his wedding procession, after their bus fell into the swollen Jhameerh nullah which falls en route. Five days later, the hunt for the remaining 20 is still on, with local villagers forming groups to search the nullah waters from Jhameerh to Beri Pattan, right along the Line of Control (LoC). Carrying long bamboo sticks and ropes, they venture in and, at places, even dive under to ensure they dont miss anything. The bodies are being discovered by Army troops near the LoC even at Palanwalla in Akhnoor tehsil near Jammu, 65 km away, where these appear to have been washed up by the Chenab from the side of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). Since Sunday, troops of Akhnoor-based 10 Division have found three bodies, including that of one-and-a-half-year-old Harneet, on the Chenab banks. The Jhameerh nullah merges with Nowshera nullah and flows into PoK from Beri Pattan in Rajouri district on the Indian side of the LoC. After nearly 1 km, it flows back to the Indian side to join the Chenab in Palanwalla area. Daljit Singh, an ex-serviceman, has come to Nonial from Upper Nonial near Nowshera in search of his brother-in-law Manmohan Singh. Let the body of someones relative be found, if not ours, he says. Many families have been completely wiped out, says Harbans Singh, a forest guard, adding that there is no household in the village which is not in mourning. Sukhwinder, who worked as a daily wager with the Postal Department, and Jatinder, an 18-year-old college student, met three years ago. They both travelled to Nowshera every day and met on local matadors or buses. A year ago, their relationship became serious when both joined the same computer coaching institute at Nowshera. Their families were already related to each other, and a match was quickly arranged. Sukhwinder had even begun construction of his own separate house to settle down after marriage. His father Bhagat Singh says the two decided everything about the place, right from the architecture and the colour of the walls to the putty on the ceilings and curtains, exchanging photographs on WhatsApp. As she wanted a particular design for curtains, these were purchased from Rajouri, 45 km away, Bhagat Singh says. An inverter bought by Sukhwinder to install in the new house is yet to arrive because of the rains. On September 4, the baraatis had waited for nearly three hours for the rains to stop, before over 200 of them decided to leave for Laam in three buses and some light motor vehicles around 11 am. Sukhwinder, along with his friends and some wedding material, was in the first car, says his elder brother Darbara Singh. On finding the Jhameerh in spate and water flowing over a bridge that falls en route, Sukhwinder came out of the car. His uncle and friends drove through and reached the other side of the nullah, says Darbara. Seeing them go through safely, the baraatis asked Sukhwinder to get into the bus just behind. However, he decided to wait for it to pass as well. When that too crossed safely, Sukhwinder got into the next bus. By then, this bus had over 70 people, as people travelling in their cars and two-wheelers had also boarded it because of the incessant rains. The bus had reached the middle of the bridge when its front wheel, on the drivers side, went into a deep crater and lost balance. The bus fell into the nullah. Those watching the bus jumped in and pulled out four people through the windows, while three others swam to safety on their own. Armyman Rattan Singh had come home from Pathankot on September 3 night for the wedding. He along with his wife Amrit Kaur and daughter, Harneet, were among the dead. The body of his wife is still missing. Another Army personnel, Swarn Singh, had come on five-day leave from Arunachal Pradesh for the marriage along with wife Ranbir Kaur and daughters Gurmeet, 3, and Tanya, who was just one-and-a-half month old. Ranbir and his daughters had got out of a car in which they were travelling to board the ill-fated bus. Now, Swarn is looking for their bodies. The entire border road, including the bridge, is maintained by the General Reserve Engineer Force (GREF). The crater had been there for the last few years, with local people drawing attention of GREF officials towards it from time to time, but to no avail, says Harpreet Kaur. Since the accident, however, the crater has been filled up by the GREF. Two days later, 13 bodies, including that of Sukhwinder, were pulled out of the bus, which was brought to the bank with the help of cranes by Army troops after water level in the nullah went down. Thirty-one others were found floating at different places, right up to Chammb-Jourian in Akhnoor near Jammu. While police confirmed 64 deaths, villagers put the number between 70-80, saying that there was no count of infants and minor children sitting in their parents lap. The police, Army and local villagers have jointly formed groups to look for the bodies. The authorities across the LoC in PoK and Army troops of the Akhnoor-based 10 Division have been informed as well, said Nowsheras Additional SP Rakesh Kumar. While the police have registered a case, they do not know whether to blame the driver who is among the dead or the GREF engineers for the negligence. Congress legislator Ravinder Sharma says GREF engineers are responsible and a case should be registered against them. None of the ministers from Chief Minister Omar Abdullahs cabinet have visited the relatives of the victims so far. DCP Shantmanu and IGP Rajesh Kumar visited Rajpur Bhatta and announced Rs 1.5 lakh ex gratia relief from the state government for the relatives of the deceased. The village has over 350 families, majority them Sikh, who are otherwise a minority in the state. Where have the funds allocated by the Centre for development of such minority pockets, as per Sarkaria Commission recommendations, gone? asks Congress leader Ravinder Sharma. http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/washed-away-in-raging-floods-a-three-year-love-story-64-lives/
  2. HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times Jammu, May 24, 2013 First Published: 18:38 IST(24/5/2013) Last Updated: 18:39 IST(24/5/2013) The Jammu Province Peoples forum (JPPF), an amalgam of more than 50 organisations of Jammu province, has urged the state government to provide full protection to the Sikh minority in the Valley facing threat perception and conversion. JPPF president Pavitar Singh warned the fundamentalists to resist from creating disturbance and law and order problem. He said the Jammu province, irrespective of cast and creed, was standing behind in support of the Sikh community in Kashmir and these anti-national elements will never be allowed to succeed in their antinational activities. JPPF has decided to send a fact-finding mission to visit the affected families in the Valley to find out the actual factual position on ground.
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