
Hundreds of pilgrims gathered in Jasnai Zullah in the village of Chasoti at the last stage of Yatra to make Machail Mat the temple when tragedy hit on Thursday.
The intricate group rested and had Langar when the deadly cloudburst in Jammu and Kashmir Kishtwar caused lightning floods and landslides and rewarded them.
At least 60 people lost their lives in this massive cloudburst to lightning floods, while more than a hundred people were injured.
According to media reports, Jasnai nullah is a key stop for a pilgrimage in the Chasoti village. Here is Langar, community cuisine, established for pilgrims of the Hindu shrine.
“The flood hit a community cuisine established for pilgrims, where 100 to 150 pilgrims had food,” said officer with Hindustan Times.
According to reports, zumlah is also a regular stop on the pilgrimage path to the Chandi Mat temple in Paddar, where more than 1.3 devoted lakh has visited since the beginning of July.
A large number of devotees because of Bhadoon Sancranti
On Thursday, the fatal number of pilgrims was on a sharp rise due to the first Bhadon or Bhadoon Sancrant (15 or 16 August).
According to the sanctuary website, devoted devotees from all over Paddar gathered outside the temple in Machail to offer prayers and look for blessings.
When Cloudburst hit, many of them either stood in zulla, or resting on Langar. Within a few seconds, the water level plunged and swept many devotees, the locals said.
Survivors’ account
“We stopped at the Maggi store. People told us to run (because of Cloudburst), but we stayed back and thought it was safe,” said nine -year -old Devanshi.
Within minutes, a large mud mass collapsed over the store. “Mata saved us,” she said how her family members and villagers pulled her out of the debris.
Sneh of Jammu said she felt it was for her after all after she was washed away and buried under the vehicle. “When we arrived at our vehicles, we heard a loud bang and saw cloudburst above the hill,” she recalled.
In no time they swept the wall of mud, boulders and trees to the Chenab River and caught them.
“My father managed to free first, then helped me. I pulled my mother from under the electric pole. She was barely conscious and seriously injured,” she said.
She said that some villagers were washed away in Chenab. “The bodies lay everywhere. The whole hill descended. Even the idol Thakur’s idol of the Chittoo Mata temple was washed up before our eyes.”
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