A wedding and 17 funerals – Jammu village recounts how deadly illness ravaged 3 families

Elaborating on the extent of fear among villagers, Mushtaq said, “Yeh mere nana hai, lekin hum aaj ek doosre ke ghar mein na kuch khaate hein, na paani peete hain (Though he is my maternal grandfather, we neither dine nor drink water at each other’s home).”

Many people opt to stay indoors, giving the village a deserted look. Those who could have moved elsewhere.

Yasmeen, the most recent casualty, is the daughter of Mohammad Aslam, whose family has been particularly ravaged by the illness. He lost five children earlier, apart from his maternal aunt and uncle.

As a probe proceeds to ascertain what caused the deaths, the administration has ordered villagers not to organise any community gatherings for the time being, a revenue official told The Indian Express

Mushtaq Ahmed digging grave of Yasmeen Akhtar, last daughter of Mohammad Aslam dying of mystery illness. (Express Photo)

“A couple of marriages fixed for today have been postponed,” said a villager.

On Monday, the team constituted on orders of Home Minister Amit Shah visited the village, located 60 kilometres from the Rajouri district headquarters, and met families of the deceased.

Authorities have also ordered the sealing of a baoli (water reservoir), where they have traces of “pesticides or insecticides”. It is suspected that the victims consumed water from this reservoir, sources told The Indian Express.

Earlier, experts from the country’s top medical institutions – PGIMER, Chandigarh; National Institute of Virology, Pune; and National Centre for Disease Control, Delhi – had visited the village and tested some water and food samples.

In their report to the J&K government, experts had said “certain neurotoxins” appear to have been found in the samples of those who died. “These (deaths) were found to be localised and possibly having some epidemiological linkage,” an official spokesperson had said last week.

It started with a feast

Villagers recounted that ever since December 2, when they gathered for the marriage of resident Fazal Hussain’s daughter Sultana, they have mostly been gathering for funerals.

The dead have been from three families – Fazal Hussain’s, Mohammad Aslam’s and Mohammad Rafiq’s.

A few days after the wedding, Fazal and his four children fell ill. They were taken to a government medical facility in Kotranka and then to the Government Medical College Hospital in Rajouri.

As their condition deteriorated, doctors referred them to Jammu on December 7, but Fazal died en route while his children died the next day.

However, what sent alarm bells ringing among the administration was when four members of Mohammad Rafiq’s family, including his pregnant wife, two sons and a daughter, arrived at the hospital with similar symptoms – mild fever at the beginning followed by loss of consciousness.

All four died during treatment, villagers said, adding that Rafiq and Fazal are related and both families were at the wedding. This led doctors to initially suspect it was a case of food poisoning.

But more than a month later, more people from the same village were brought to the hospital with similar symptoms, and they too died under similar circumstances.

Villagers recalled that 40 days after the deaths at Fazal’s home, there was “khatam” (to mark the end of mourning) at his home. Villagers who attended had food there.

After the conclusion of that ceremony, villagers said sweet rice in packets was sent from Fazal’s home to the homes of Mohammad Yusuf and Mohammad Aslam as they were close relatives. In the days that followed, six children from Aslam’s family succumbed to the illness.

“Until a few weeks ago, they were playing on this land. Today, they are buried underneath it,” said Jamal Din.