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COVID-19 lockdown: Labourers peddle bicycles for 7-days to reach home

Last Updated 02 April 2020, 10:30 IST

Two labourers, who reached home in hilly Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday, after peddling their bicycles for seven days from Himachal Pradesh, have been kept at a quarantine facility by the authorities.

Reports said Shabir Ahmed (27) and Mohammad Farooq (30) from Chikhri Ban village of Mandi tehsil in Poonch, working as labourers in Kangra area of Himachal Pradesh, got stuck due to nationwide lockdown announced by the Prime Minister last month to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The duo left Kangra in Himachal about a week ago on their bicycles and kept moving. As they were about to reach home, they were intercepted by the police and taken to a quarantine facility, they said.

Deputy Commissioner Poonch, Rahul Yadav while confirming the incident said that the two men were on way to Chikri Ban village in Mandi but were intercepted and later shifted to a quarantine facility. “It has come to fore that the duo peddled their bicycles to reach Poonch from Himachal Pradesh,” he confirmed.

While India's pandemic lockdown has turned into a tragedy for lakhs of migrant workers across the country, thousands of labourers in Jammu and Kashmir are finding it hard to reach their homes. On Wednesday three labourers had to pay with their life while trekking a treacherous route through the mountainous range from south Kashmir’s Anantnag district in order to reach homes at Banihal in Jammu amid the lockdown.

Thursday was the 15th day of lockdown in Kashmir which was imposed on March 19, a day after the first positive COVID-19 case was reported. The lockdown has turned the migrant labourers into refugees overnight with their workplaces shut, and most employers and contractors, who paid them vanishing.

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(Published 02 April 2020, 10:30 IST)

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