Another Minor Girl Dies As Budhaal Toll Mounts To 17
Jammu: A high-level inter-ministerial team Sunday reached Rajouri district where a mysterious illness is wreaking havoc, killing another person on Sunday and taking the death toll to 17.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah had on Saturday ordered the constitution of an inter-ministerial team to ascertain the causes of deaths that took place within weeks in three families linked to each other in the remote Budhaal village.
Yasmeen Kousar, the last of the six children of Mohd Aslam undergoing treatment at SMGS hospital in Jammu, died this evening, officials said.
Kousar’s five siblings and grandparents died last week. Nine other members of two families had died in the village between December 7 and 12.
Officials said the 16-member team arrived at Rajouri district headquarters this evening and is likely to visit the mountain village, 55km from the town, on Monday.
The central team will work in collaboration with the local administration to provide immediate relief to the victims.
Experts from some of the most reputable institutions in the country have been roped in to understand the causes of the deaths.
The patients complained of fever, pain, nausea and loss of consciousness before dying within days of their admission to hospitals.
Earlier, a Jammu and Kashmir government spokesperson said investigations and samples empirically indicated that the incidents were not due to a communicable disease of bacterial or viral origin and that there is no public health angle.
The first incident was reported on December 7, 2024, after a family of seven people fell ill following a community meal, leading to five deaths.
On December 12, a family of nine was affected, causing three fatalities.
The third incident was reported a month later on January 12 in which a family of 10 people fell ill after another community meal. Six children were hospitalised in the incident.
10-year-old Zabeena Kouser died at Jammu’s SMGS Hospital on Wednesday night. Her 15-year-old sister Yasmeen Kouser was reportedly critical, the officials said.
The government has said that it has taken multiple steps to ascertain the root cause of the illness.