12 people have been hospitalised. Express Photo by Prem Nath PandeyThe communication blackout in Kashmir played out at South East Delhi’s Zakir Nagar Tuesday, where a fire in a four-storey residential building claimed six lives and left 12 injured. Soha Rafiq (34), one of the victims, and her husband Md Umar Rafiq (30), who is hospitalised, are both from Srinagar. And with practically no means to contact people in the Valley, their friends in Delhi and the police scrambled to find a way to reach their families back home and inform them of the tragedy.
Around 2.15 am, a spark in an electric meter located on the ground floor of the building started a fire that engulfed vehicles parked there and spread to the four floors above.
On Tuesday afternoon, Soha and Umar’s friend Khurshid Bhat, who lives next door in Jamia Nagar, sat outside the hospital. “I found out about the fire and rushed here. Soha and Umar’s parents live in Srinagar. We have not been able to talk to them over the phone and tell them about the incident. All phone lines are down, we tried a lot,” he told The Indian Express.
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Realising that the problem might not get resolved anytime soon, Bhat and the couple’s other friends sent their friend Majid Khan (35) to Srinagar Tuesday. “We have no other way of informing their families, so we booked a flight and sent Khan there to bring them to Delhi,” said Bhat. He said Khan took a 7.25 am Air India flight to Srinagar.
A senior Delhi Police officer said efforts were made to contact counterparts in Srinagar but since their phone lines are down, too, they were unsuccessful.
“A person known to the victim left for Srinagar Tuesday morning and will arrive in Delhi Tuesday night. The body will be handed over to the family when they arrive; we are told that the last rites may happen in Srinagar,” said the officer.
The couple moved to Delhi six years ago. While Umar runs a garment business in Jamia Nagar, Soha was a homemaker.
Bhat said the two were supposed to fly back to Srinagar for Eid on August 9: “Even after the Centre’s announcement Monday, they wanted to be in Srinagar with their parents. Their flight tickets had also been booked.”
