With the border in Ladakh tense, it will take at least seven days for the body of 30-year-old woman, Kherun Nissa, to cover 4 km to reach home for burial in the Nubra Valley, Leh, from the PoK.
Nissa, who left her husband’s home at Leh’s Bogdang village on August 26, mysteriously fell into the Shayok river and was washed away over 10 km into PoK’s Baltistan region.
Common WhatsApp group
With the relations between the two countries tense and the Chinese aggression aggravating the situation, the villagers alerted their counterparts in PoK on a common WhatsApp group, which has kept the Balti community together despite the barriers.
“We flashed the news of missing Nissa on a common WhatsApp group, which helps us to stay connected with the other side. We have relations there as Bogdang joined India after the 1971 war. The news went viral there and finally the villagers from Thugmas [in PoK] spotted the body and informed us on the social media,” Ghulam Muhammad Tso, uncle of the deceased woman, told The Hindu over the phone.
Since then the father of the deceased woman, Muhammad Ibrahim, has been making fervent appeals to both the Indian and Pakistani governments to allow the body to be handed over at the shortest possible distance.
“Bogdang is just four km away from the Zero Line at Thang. It was easy to handover the body there but the permission was denied. Earlier, at least the bodies in such cases would be allowed transportation at the nearest points but due to the tension it’s even getting difficult even to get the bodies,” Mr. Tso added.
Saugat Biswas, Divisional Commissioner, Ladakh, in a letter to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), also pleaded the case. “Necessary measures may be taken to get the body at the earliest through the closest proximity at Thang village in Turtuk Block. The villagers and the family members are waiting and the matter be treated as most urgent,” reads the letter.
Body rushed for PoK capital
With no progress on handing over the body at the tense Ladakh border, the Baltistan administration on Thursday rushed the body for PoK capital Muzaffarabad from Skardu, which is at least 467 km apart. From Muzaffarabad, the body is likely to be handed over in Baramulla’s Uri and will cover another 376 km to reach the Nubra valley. The body is expected to reach Leh by Saturday.
“I want to thank the Balti community on both the sides [of the LoC] for their efforts to find the body and bringing a closure to this crestfallen father. I now await to see my daughter one last time,” Mr. Ibrahim said.