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Union Home Minister Amit Shah has ordered the constitution of an inter-ministerial team to visit a village in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district to ascertain the causes of deaths in three incidents in the past six weeks.
“The team will be headed by a senior Union home ministry officer and consist of experts from the ministries of health and family welfare, agriculture, chemicals and fertilisers, and water resources,” according to an official statement. “The team will also be assisted by experts from the animal husbandry, food safety and forensic science labs. The central team will proceed on Sunday and, in collaboration with the local administration, also work on providing immediate relief as well as taking precautionary measures to prevent such incidents in the future,” it said. “Experts from some of the most reputable institutions have been arranged to manage the situation and understand the causes of the deaths,” it added.
At least 16 people have died of a “mystery illness” in Baddal village of Rajouri district over the past 45 days. People complained of fever, pain, nausea and loss of consciousness before dying within days of their admission to hospitals. A girl continues to remain critical.
On Friday, 60-year-old Jatti Begum was brought to Rajouri’s Government Medical College Hospital Thursday evening, where she died, taking the toll to 16.
She had previously lost her husband and five grandchildren to the “mystery illness”. She is survived by a son, daughter-in-law and a granddaughter.
Earlier, a J&K 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 death in the village to be attributed to the illness was reported on December 7, after seven of a family fell ill after attending a function. On December 12, nine of a family were hospitalised with the same illness. A month later, six children were hospitalised.
Officials said the test reports ruled out any viral, bacterial or microbiological infections. However, experts said “certain neurotoxins” appear to have been found in the samples of those who have died so far.
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