New Delhi: Raiders have started descending on Uttarakhand hills, which were devastated by the recent flash floods.
According to reports, bodies are being disfigured by looters who are out to make a quick buck before the administration reaches those far flung areas.
Gurgaon resident Narender Yadav, who managed to return home on his own after being trapped at Rudraprayag, has come with a video that he managed to shoot using his mobile phone. The video shows miscreants removing gold jewellery from dead bodies using screwdrivers and pliers.
“Chop off the hand, if you can’t remove the bangle,” a voice is heard instructing a youth trying to remove a gold bangle from a female dead body.
“It was horror. The locals have been indulging in rampant looting and mistreating the dead for gold, cash and valuables. They [also] strike at those alive and moving alone, asking them to handover their gold, cash, watches, etc and threatening that they would be pushed to the gorge,” Yadav said.
He had gone to Uttarakhand for pilgrimage with his friends and relatives, five of whom are still missing.
A teenage girl broke into tears while describing what she saw.
“They look like Nepalis and are using sharp knives to cut ears and noses to remove gold from dead bodies. How low can one stoop for greed? Instead of helping the victims they are looting them,” she said sobbing.
Some of those rescued said that the army had caught some young boys with bags full of looted gold and jewellery.
There are reports that locals are charging as much as Rs500 for a bowl of rice (Dh30) and Rs180 for a piece of roti from hungry victims yet to be rescued. Local taxis are demanding up to Rs25,000 to drive the victims to the state capital Dehradun.
More than 10,000 persons are estimated to be still trapped in several parts of the state and their survival is at stake, considering light rains returned to the hill state from Monday, hampering rescue operations. Predictions that another round of heavy rains may start from Tuesday has put the authorities in a fix.
Meanwhile, politics over the tragedy has started. The federal government on Monday instructed the Uttarakhand administration not to allow other state governments to carry out any rescue or relief work after reports that several opposition-ruled states have rushed their teams to rescue the trapped tourists.
Uttarakhand is under the Congress party rule and the party intends to keep opposition parties out of sight. At the most they are being asked to send the relief material to Dehradun while the distribution would be undertaken by the local administration, which has proved inadequate to the task.
