The body of the Block Development Officer, who died on duty in snowbound Gurez two days ago, was airlifted to the district Bandipora headquarters in north Kashmir on Sunday after improvement in weather, officials said.
They said Abdul Saleem Darzi, 48, of south Kashmir’s Anantnag district, who was posted as BDO in Tulail valley in Gurez died on Friday of “suffocation” while performing ablution for congregational prayers. While he was taken to a nearby heath facility, the hospital authorities declared him brought dead.
His body could not be brought out of the snowbound area due to inclement weather even as Deputy Commissioner Bandipora Owais Ahmad had requested for a special sortie for airlifting the body. SDM Gurez Mudasir Ahmad told Greater Kashmir that Darzi’s body was on Sunday airlifted in a chopper from Gurez. The incident has raised a clamour for the Bandipora-Gurez road tunnel, the DPR of which prepared by the Border Roads Organisation lies with the transport ministry and is not seeing any headway.
Talking to Greater Kashmir, locals said that Friday’s incident should serve as an “eye opener” for people ignoring the miseries of those living in Gurez during the harsh winter, a time when Gurez valley remains cut-off via road. They said that the residents of Gurez had been persistently demanding the tunnel for the area and urged the government to pay heed to their demand.
The 85-km Bandipora-Gurez is closed since December last year.