Four incidents of stone-pelting were reported from Srinagar's Rainawari area today.
As anger spills on the ground in parts of flood-ravaged Kashmir, some people in Srinagar's Rainawari area today pelted stones at helicopters carrying food and relief material. With four such incidents in the area today, the choppers could not drop food packets and had to return.
Here are the latest developments in this story:
In the wake of attacks on the rescue teams, two battalions of Armed Police have been airlifted from Jammu to flood-ravaged Kashmir Valley to maintain law and order. "We have inducted two battalions of Armed Police from Jammu for maintaining law and order in the valley," a senior police officer said.
Rescue and relief operations were briefly halted today because of rain accompanied by thunder and lightning, triggering panic among the residents. But as the weather condition improved, rescue and relief operations resumed in flood-hit parts of Jammu and Kashmir.
The aerial operations which begin at day break and continue till sunset are the only method of carrying supplies and ferrying the stranded people to safer places. Nearly two lakh people have been rescued so far.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has directed concerned departments to redouble the ration supply to the valley, and asserted that restoration of essential services and public utilities on war footing is the priority of the government.
Mr Abdullah also said that 60 per cent power supply has been restored in Kashmir Valley so far, and that within 15 days, all power will be restored.
The state government today asked its employees to immediately report back to their offices or face action. Chief Secretary Mohammad Iqbal Khanday told the employees that they needed to help mitigate the problems caused by the unprecedented floods.
Receding water in many areas is now beginning to reveal the real extent of the devastation. "Srinagar has drowned completely, it's unrecognisable. Almost everything is in ruins, it is just unimaginable," a State Disaster Response Force official said.
OP Singh, director general of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), said the big worry now was of the spread of water-borne diseases. "Many parts are still submerged in four to five feet of water and we are concentrating on supplying anti-diarrhoea, anti-infection medicines and using chlorine to avert diseases," he said in Srinagar.
The Jammu-Srinagar National Highway remained closed for the tenth consecutive day on Saturday due to landslides and sinking of road at various places. However, educational institutions in Jammu, except those serving as relief camps for flood-affected people, reopened after almost a week.
Officials say over 200 people have been killed in the worst floods in the state in over a century; about 1.5 lakh are still stranded.
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