SRINAGAR: The Kashmiri engineer missing in the Uttarakhand flash flood had been specially sent by the company for 10 days. He was sup[posed to finish his assignment a day later when the avalanche caused the glacial lake burst and wash away the dam, reports appearing in the media said.
Identified as Basharat Ahmad Zargar, the 53-year-old engineer from Soura in Srinagar was posted in the company’s Delhi office. He was sent to Topovan in the last week of January for 10 days. Sunday was supposed to be his last day on the site following which he would return home but before that, the devastation visited the spot.
His son Salik Zargar drove to the site within minutes after he got the information about the disaster. Within 20 hours, he was in Chamoli. A day alter his uncles joined him. Salik told reporters that he is getting frantic calls from his mother and sister but he has nothing much to share with them other than his hopes that his father would be alive.
Rescue efforts are on as more than 170 people are reported missing. So far 12 workers were pulled out from a tunnel after being trapped in the freezing dark. The rescue teams have so recovered 34 bodies. These include a cop’s body that was recovered almost 110 km away from the site.
