Nightlong rain keeps Kashmiris on edge

Incessant overnight rain on Thursday kept thousands of locals on tenterhooks, though the water level in Jhelum and all other major rivers of the valley did not rise to danger level.

"Today morning, the water level of the Jhelum river was 12 feet at Sangam (Anantnag). It was 15.15 feet at Ram Munshibagh (Srinagar) and 11 feet at Asham (Bandipora). At all these places, the river is flowing below the danger mark," a senior official of the flood control department told IANS on Thursday in Srinagar.

Despite this, thousands of locals living in low lying areas and along banks of rivers and other water bodies remained on tenterhooks throughout the night .

"We have been awake for the whole night looking anxiously at the muddy water flowing in the river," said Mehrajuddin, a resident of Abi Guzar area in Srinagar city.

During September 2014 floods, Abi Guzar, adjacent to city centre Lal Chowk, had been inundated by flood waters as the embankment of the Jhelum river had caved in.

Police in Kothibagh sub-division of the city under whose jurisdiction areas like Abi Guzar, Residency Road, Maisuma and Kralkhud fall, patrolled the river bank throughout the night with searchlights to watch for any breaches.

Similarly, in all other areas situated close to the Jhelum river in Anantnag, Srinagar, Baramulla and Bandipora districts officials of the local flood control department and the state police maintained nightlong vigil.

Teams of state disaster response force (SDRF) and national disaster response force (NDRF) maintained vigil at vulnerable places along the river banks and also plugged some minor breaches those occurred during the night.

More than 2500 people from different flood prone areas have been shifted to safer places as a precautionary measure during the last 24 hours in Jammu and Kashmir.

Sonam Lotus, director of the local Met office told IANS that inclement weather is likely to continue for another 24 hours in the state with possibilities of moderate to heavy rain at many places.

"From tomorrow onwards, we are expecting improvement in the overall weather conditions as the Western Disturbance causing the present conditions is we akening," Lotus said on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the strategic Jammu-Srinagar highway which was opened for one-way light vehicular traffic yesterday was again shut due to landslides in Ramban district of Jammu region.

More than five hundred passenger vehicles are stranded at different points at safer places on the highway, officials said IANS in Srinagar.

"There have been fresh landslides on the road at Magarkoot and some other places. The landslides are being cleared so that stranded vehicles are cleared to pass. No traffic will, however, be allowed to move on the highway from either Srinagar or Jammu today (Thursday)," a senior traffic department official said on Thursday.