JK: Death toll mounts to 41 after record rains in Jammu; Jhelum floods Srinagar, Anantnag
Jammu/Srinagar(PTI): After record rains wreaked havoc in Jammu and Kashmir over the past two days, the death toll in related incidents rose to 41, most of them victims of the landslide on a Vaishno Devi pilgrimage route, while there was some let-up in the showers on Wednesday, allowing relief efforts to pick up pace.
The water level in the swollen rivers across Jammu showed signs of receding from 11 AM, but the flood alert mark was breached by the Jhelum in Anantnag and Srinagar and water entered several residential and commercial areas.
Massive damage has been reported to public infrastructure, including several key bridges, private houses and commercial establishments, due to overflowing of water bodies and flash floods across the Union Territory, officials said, adding more than 10,000 people have been evacuated from low-lying flooded areas.
As torrential rains disrupted normal life, Education Minister Sakina Itoo announced that all educational institutes will remain closed across Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday in view of the inclement weather.
The Northern Railways ordered the cancellation of 58 trains to and from Jammu and Katra stations, while 64 trains were short-terminated or short-originated at various stations in the division.
Rail traffic, which was briefly restored on Wednesday morning with six trains departing from Jammu after a day-long suspension, has again been halted due to flash floods and heavy soil erosion in the Chakki river area, the officials said.
With the rain stopping in some areas, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah rushed to Jammu from Srinagar to personally review the situation in the region.
Officials said that the phone and network services were restored across all networks on Wednesday, 24 hours after the damage to optical fibres caused outages in the Union territory
The death toll in the Vaishno Devi landslide has gone up to 34 with rescuers pulling out more bodies from under the debris, the officials said, a day after the disaster struck the route to the hilltop shrine in Jammu and Kashmir's Reasi district.
At least 20 people were injured in the landslide triggered by incessant heavy rain and are undergoing treatment in different hospitals, the officials said, adding the landslide struck near the Inderprastha Bhojnalaya at Ardhkuwari, about halfway along the winding 12-km trek from Katra to the shrine, at around 3 PM on Tuesday.
With more people feared trapped, rescue teams are continuing to dig through the mounds of rubble to look for survivors.
The pilgrimage to the shrine remained suspended for the second day. While the yatra had been stopped on the Himkoti trek route since morning on Tuesday, it was going on on the old route till afternoon when authorities decided to suspend it as a precautionary measure.
Jammu has recorded 380 mm of rainfall in the past 24 hours ending at 8.30 AM on Wednesday, which is the highest for a 24-hour period since 1910 when the observatory was set up in the winter capital.
Four people, including three women, lost their lives in Doda district on Tuesday, while two bodies were found on Tuesday, including that of a BSF jawan in Pragwal. The other body found in Akhnoor is yet to be identified. Body of an irrigation department employee was found in Lakhanpur along the border of Punjab.
Heavy rains were also experienced in the Kashmir valley overnight, where the main Jhelum river has crossed the flood alert mark at Sangam in Anantnag district and at Ram Munshi Bagh in Srinagar this morning.
In Srinagar, water entered the residential areas in Kursu, Rajbagh, Bemina and Sekidafar, while most places in main Anantnag town also saw flood waters enter residential as well as commercial areas, leaving markets submerged, they said.
The waters also entered the district court complex in Anantnag district in south Kashmir, following which the district judge and other staff had to be evacuated by the SDRF personnel using a boat, the officials said.
The district administrations and police in Anantnag, Kulgam and Srinagar had to evacuate people living in low-lying areas to safety.
The Jammu-Srinagar national highway remained closed for vehicular traffic, along with over a dozen other roads struck by landslides over the past couple of days.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his prayers are for everyone's safety and well-being.
"The loss of lives due to a landslide on the route to the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Temple is saddening. My thoughts are with the bereaved families. May the injured recover at the earliest. The administration is assisting all those affected," he said in a post on X.
Chief Minister Abdullah said he has briefed Prime Minister Modi on the situation arising from heavy rains and flooding in the Jammu region and expressed gratitude for his assurance of continued assistance to the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
The chief minister said they were slightly relieved as the rain had stopped on Wednesday.
"As compared to yesterday, we have got slight relief today (Wednesday) with the fact that the rains have stopped. Water is slowly receding in low-lying areas," he said.
Officials said said a flash flood washed away 10 residential houses and a bridge in the remote Margi area of Kishtwar district, but there was no immediate report of any casualties.
The rains continued non-stop in most parts of the Jammu region over the past 24 hours with almost all water bodies, including Tawi, Chenab, Ujh, Ravi and Basanter, flowing several feet above the danger mark, the officials said.
However, the water level in most of the water bodies started receding after the rains stopped at around 11 AM, though the weather remained cloudy.
On August 14, a cloudburst triggered flash floods in Chisoti, the last motorable village en route to the Machail Mata shrine, in Kishtwar district leaving behind a trail of death and destruction. At least 65 people, mostly pilgrims, were killed and more than 100 were injured, while 32 are still missing.
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Iran offers to reopen Strait of Hormuz if US lifts its blockade and the war ends: officials
Cairo (AP): Iran has offered to end its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for the US lifting its blockade on the country and an end to the war, while proposing that discussions on the larger question of its nuclear programme would come in a later phase, two regional officials said Monday.
US President Donald Trump seems unlikely to accept the offer, which was passed to the Americans by Pakistan and would leave unresolved the disagreements that led the US and Israel to go to war on February 28.
With a fragile ceasefire in place, the US and Iran are locked in a standoff over the strait, through which a fifth of the world's traded oil and gas passes in peacetime. The US blockade is designed to prevent Iran from selling its oil, depriving it of crucial revenue while also potentially creating a situation where Tehran has to shut off production because it has nowhere to store the oil.
The strait's closure, meanwhile, has put pressure on Trump, as oil and gasoline prices have skyrocketed ahead of crucial midterm elections, and it has pressured his Gulf allies, which use the waterway to export their oil and gas.
The closure has also had far-reaching effects throughout the world economy, raising the price of fertilizer, food and other basic goods.
The proposal would push off negotiations on Iran's nuclear programme to a later date. Trump said one of the major reasons he went to war was to deny Iran the ability to develop nuclear weapons.
The two officials, who had knowledge of the proposal, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations between Iranian and Pakistani officials this weekend. The Axios news outlet first reported Iran's proposal.
It came as Iran's foreign minister visited Russia, which has long been a key backer of Tehran. It's unclear what, if any, assistance Moscow might offer now.
Strait of Hormuz remains blocked
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Iran's ability to choke off traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, has proved one of its biggest strategic advantages in a war that has often boiled down to which side can take more pain.
Oil prices have risen steadily since the war began and tankers full of crude became stranded in the Persian Gulf, unable to safely transit through the strait and reach global distribution points.
On Monday, the spot price of Brent crude, the international standard, was trading at around $108 per barrel, nearly 50 per cent higher than when the war began.
Iranian foreign minister holds talks as negotiations with US stall
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Trump last week indefinitely extended the ceasefire the US and Iran agreed to on April 7 that has largely halted fighting. But a permanent settlement remains elusive in the war that has killed thousands of people.
Iran's state-run IRNA news agency said Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi landed in St. Petersburg on Monday morning ahead of a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“It is a good opportunity for us to consult with our Russian friends about the developments that have occurred in relation to the war during this period and what is happening now,” Araghchi said in a video interview posted by IRNA.
It comes as Pakistan has been seeking to revive stalled talks between Iran and the US, and negotiations had been expected in Islamabad over the weekend. Instead, Trump called off a trip by his envoys and suggested the talks could take place by phone instead.
Over the weekend, Araghchi made two stops in Pakistan and a visit to Oman, which shares the strait with Iran. He also spoke by phone with counterparts in Qatar and Saudi Arabia on Sunday.
Iran wants to persuade Oman to support a mechanism to collect tolls from vessels passing through the strait, according to a regional official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to discuss the matter.
Oman's response wasn't immediately clear.
The official, who is involved in mediation efforts, also said Iran insisted on ending the US blockade before new talks and that Pakistan-led mediators are trying to bridge significant gaps between the countries.
Trump says Iran has offered a much better proposal
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Trump told journalists Saturday that after he called off a trip by his envoys to Pakistan, Iran sent a “much better” proposal.
He did not elaborate but stressed that one of his conditions is that Iran “will not have a nuclear weapon”.
Iran insists its programme is peaceful, but the US wants to remove Tehran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which could be used to build a bomb, should Tehran choose to pursue one.
Since the war began, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran and at least 2,509 people in Lebanon, where fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group resumed two days after the Iran war started. Another 23 people have been killed in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon, 13 US service members in the region and six UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon have been killed.
The ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah has been extended by three weeks. Hezbollah has not participated in the Washington-brokered diplomacy.
