Worried family awaits news of kin in Kashmir

With no news on the whereabouts of his elderly parents, daughter and another kin, stranded in flood-hit Kashmir, family of Azam Sait are a worried lot.

Rukhsana Mahmood, 66, Mahmood Wahid, 70, accompanied by their grand daughter Arzoo Afzal and a relative Heena Fazal, are in Kashmir to attend a wedding.  When Azam Sait, received a call from his aged mother on Sunday, she informed him the weather had finally turned better and sun was out.

However, little did the family know that in a matter of  three hours, the situation would go out of hand. “At 7 pm, my wife got a call from one of the relatives that water was flooding the City,” Sait said. It was at 4 pm on Sunday the family spoke to them last. “They asked me to book their return tickets for Monday as it was raining heavily. We were unaware that the situation would worsen this way,” bemoaned Sait.

“We got carried away by the weather forecast that rain would subside by Monday or Tuesday. The family was actually scheduled to return on Thursday,” he said. Sait, said by 2 am on Thursday, someone from the hotel had called to inform their family has moved to another block.

“They informed me that neither members from Army nor rescue team have come to their rescue and none from Karnataka’s rescue team has approached them,” he claimed.

Sait said he had registered their details with disaster management team on 1070 but was unable to gather any information. The family was lodged at Hotel Brown Palace, Boulevard Road, in Srinagar.