Kishtwar: The Indian Army, along with disaster response teams, has launched rescue operations to evacuate pilgrims stranded at the Machail Mata Temple following a devastating cloudburst in Kishtwar district on Sunday that has claimed at least 55 lives.
Visuals from the site show army personnel assisting stranded devotees and retrieving bodies from the debris.
Temple cleaning staff have also expressed their readiness to join relief efforts. One worker told reporters here., “On July 22, I went to Machail as a cleaning worker. Today, when I returned, everything was shut. People who ran carts and hotels there are coming back. We also want to help in the relief work. When we heard that so many people were dead or missing after the cloudburst, we were shocked. We only saw the images on social media.”
Another cleaning worker, a Kishtwar resident, estimated that nearly 100 people may still be trapped at the shrine. “Many have died, and people are still terrified. If this tragedy hadn’t happened, there would have been far more devotees at the temple. Around 100 people could still be there,” he said, adding with grief, “I clean the temple. This should never have happened. There is nothing left to see now; we are in tears.”
Meanwhile, Punjab resident Mandeep Saini made a desperate appeal to authorities to trace his wife and mother-in-law, missing since the August 14 cloudburst in Chasoti village. Saini had dropped his wife at her parents’ home in Kishtwar for Rakshabandhan on August 9, after which she visited the Machail Mata Mandir on August 12.
“The other six people who were with them have returned, but it’s been four days and there is still no information about the two of them. I last spoke to her at Udhampur station. My mind is not working. We are all very worried. I have only one request to the government—please find them,” Saini told reporters here.
Major General APS Bal, General Officer Commanding Counter Insurgency Force–Delta, said the Army is making all efforts to rescue those trapped. He emphasized the swift response, noting that troops reached the disaster site within 45 minutes.
