Jammu village in fear as deadly illness claims 17 lives, baffling authorities

Jammu and Kashmir: Fear grips the Jummu village of Baddal after 17 of its residents died from a mysterious illness since December 7.

The 35-year-old Mushtaq Ahmed and his 65-year-old grandfather Jamal Din are looking for people to bury the most recent victim of the illness, Yasmeen Kousar (15), The Indian Express reported.

Jamal Din pointed to the fear among people saying ‘no one even wants to dig a grave’, which he said requires at least 10-12 people.

As the situation is coming to a head, the centre formed an inter-ministerial team last week for the village of 500 homes.

Mushtaq said people stopped interacting to the extent that he and his grandfather neither dine nor drink water at each other’s home.

The village has worn a deserted look with people choosing to stay indoors.

Yasmeen Kousar who died recently is the daughter of Mohammad Aslam who lost five children previously alongside his maternal uncle and aunt.

Authorities asked villagers not to form any community gathering in the midst of continuing probe into the cause of the deaths, according to the report.

On Monday the inter-ministerial team visited the village nestled some 60 km away from the Rajouri district headquarters and met families.

After finding traces of ‘ pesticides or insecticides’ in the water, authorities ordered to seal a baoli ( water reservoir) in the area on suspicion that victims might have consumed its water, The Indian Express reported.

Experts from the country’s top medical institutions including PGIMER, Chandigarh; National Institute of Virology, Pune; and National Centre for Disease Control, Delhi earlier in their report to J&K government revealed presence of ‘certain neurotoxins’ in the samples of those who died.

An official spokesperson last week said that ‘these (deaths) were found to be localised and possibly having some epidemiological linkage’.

The last time villagers gathered happily was for the wedding of resident Fazal Hussain’s daughter Sultana on December 2.

A few days later, Fazal and his four children fell ill and were transported to a government medical facility in Kotranka before heading to the Government Medical College Hospital in Rajouri.

Fazal was being taken to Jammu after doctors’ advice on December 7 when he died en route and the next day his children died.

Later Mohammad Rafiq’s family, including his pregnant wife, two sons and a daughter developed similar symptoms of mild fever followed by loss of consciousness.

Sending shockwaves in the village all four died during treatment.

Doctors initially linked death to food poisoning since families of Rafiq and Fazal were at the wedding.

Just over a month later, more people in the village developed similar symptoms and died.

After ceremony marking the end of 40-days mourning at Fazal’s home, sweet rice in packets was sent from Fazal’s home to the household of Mohammad Yusuf and Mohammad Aslam.

In the following days six children from Aslam’s family also gave in to the illness.