Ratti Gali: The bodies of two tourists who were swept away by the flood in the Neelam valley were recovered, the search for the three is on.

Ratti Gali: The bodies of two tourists who were swept away by the flood in the Neelam valley were recovered, the search for the three is on.

According to the authorities in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, the bodies of two tourists who went missing after the cloudburst and flooding in the drain in the famous tourist destination Ratigli lake area have been recovered from different places of the Neelum river, while three missing tourists have been found. The search is on.

Akhtar Ayub, officer of Neelum district of the State Disaster Management Authority, says that on August 16, a cloudburst caused a flood in the canal and a flash flood swept away five tourists.

Among the five missing people, the bodies of tourists named Talha Javed and Umeer Sajjad have been found. According to officials, Talha's dead body has been sent to her native Narwal, while according to Neelum District SP Sajid Imran, one of the other four missing persons, Umeer Sajjad's body has been found from the Neelum River at Bagna. His relatives have identified him as coming from Narwal. After performing the funeral prayers, the deceased will be sent to Narwal along with the family members.

According to Akhtar Ayub, these five tourists studying in Islamabad "reached the Neelam Valley on the night of August 13 by public transport and fell victim to the flood that came in the Nala Dwarian at five o'clock on August 16."

"Flood swept away everything around the rail drain"

Akhtar Ayub said that a local man named Irfan, who was himself affected by the flooding of the drain last night, contacted the district headquarters and said that when these people were walking back along the drain along the drain towards Dwarian, at that time the drains I got hit by the coming flood.

Chalhana entry point records and other information revealed that these tourists had celebrated Independence Day on August 14 at Urang Keel, one of the Alats located near the LOC.

According to one of the eyewitnesses, Rustam Lone, these five people got out of the driver's car and were walking when the floodgate came from behind at the Chak place. We tried to save their lives. I hung from a tree but we could not save his life.

Amjad, the driver, said that he was returning from the base camp when the five men told him that they had to go down.

On reaching the place, I stopped the car there because it was raining heavily and I advised them to stay in a house there, but the tourists continued their journey saying that we have to reach the university in the morning. Prohibited to travel on a separate route above the road instead of traveling on the road along the drain.

But due to haste, instead of listening to me, he agreed to go by the road and said, "Brothers are young people, now they complete the journey by running on the road for a few minutes."

Akhtar Ayub said that some time after the driver Amjad left, a terrible storm surge occurred in the drain, which swept away everything around the drain.

"I thought that there would be no signal, so there is no connection"

Talha's cousin, Umar, told the BBC that the group of friends had gone on August 13 and went missing on August 16. He said that he was last contacted on 14th.

Umar said that they said that the signal does not come in these areas, so they will contact only after returning to Muzaffarabad.

We thought that we would not be able to talk until the 16th due to lack of signal and would have stopped somewhere, but when there was no contact even after that, we resorted to social media.

At the time Umar spoke to us, he was traveling from Narowal to Kashmir. Among them both Umair and Zubair are brothers and cousins ​​of Umar.

He said that after not receiving any information even on the third day and after hearing the news of the state of emergency there, he made posts on social media groups and called some sources in Neelum Valley, then he received this information. He said that Talha 17 He was 20 years old and had done FSC, while Akmal and Zubair had also done FSC. The eldest in this group were Umeer and Hasnat who according to him were students of Comsetes University Islamabad.

After the incident, local people escorted tourists returning from Ratigali Base Camp to Dawarian Zero Point in the dark of night and many tourists were voluntarily accommodated in their homes by local people.

The local people also helped the district administration in pulling out the vehicles stuck in the drain.

A photo of a school teacher carrying tourists' children on his shoulders is going viral on social media as he descends the hills near the drain.