Indian rescuers illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) used shovels and earthworks to search for survivors under rocks and debris on Friday, one day after sudden floods triggered by heavy rain killed at least 60 people and left 200 other disappeared.
On Thursday, mud shifts and flood waters flooded the village of Chasoti, taking pilgrims who had gathered for lunch before hiking the hill for a popular religious site, in the second catastrophe of this type in the Himalayas in just over a week.
“We heard a huge sound and was followed by a sudden flood and melting snow. People were screaming, and some of them fell into the Chenab river. Others were buried under the debris,” said Rakesh Sharma, a wounded pilgrim.
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Bags, clothes and other personal effects, sewn in mud, were dispersed in the middle of the broken electric posts and mud on Friday, while the rescuers used ropes and crossed makeshift bridges to try to get people out of the debris.
At least 60 people were killed, more than 100 injured and 200 others missing, journalists, chief minister of Jammu-et-Cachemire, Omar Abdullah said on Friday.
Himalayas are subject to floods and landslides, but some scientists say that the intensity and frequency of these events increase due to climate change.
A general vision of a zone affected by the fatal floods caused by sudden and heavy rains in the city of Chasoti of the Kishtwar district, Indian occupying the cashmere, August 15, 2025. Photo: Reuters
Machail Yatra is a popular pilgrimage to the Himalayan Himalayan sanctuary by Machail Mata, one of the manifestations of the goddess Durga. Pilgrims go to the temple of Chasoti, where the vehicle road ends.
Thursday’s incident arrives a little more than a week after a similar flood and the mud flow swallowed an entire village in the Himalayan Uttarakhand state.
“Nature has tested us. In the past few days, we had to face the landslides, the clouds and other natural calamities,” said Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the start of a speech of almost two hours on the 79th day of the country’s independence.
According to the Indian Meteorological Department, is a sudden and intense downpour over 100 mm (4 inches) of rain in just one hour which can trigger sudden floods, landslides and devastation, especially in mountainous regions during the monsoon.
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In neighboring Nepal, at least 41 people died, 21 were missing and 121 injured in floods, heavy rains, landslides and hailstorms since the first monsoon rains began in June this year, according to data provided by the country’s disaster management authority.
And more than 50 people were killed during the night in rain -related incidents in the mountainous northern Pakistan, rescue officials announced on Friday. The floods and collapse of house roofs caused death.
In cashmere of Pakistan, where eight people were killed – including six members of a family buried in the debris of their home – evacuation operations were underway for blocked domestic tourists.
