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Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday ordered the constitution of an inter-ministerial team led by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to investigate the causes of unexplained deaths in three incidents reported over the past six weeks in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district.
As per Shah's direction, the team will visit the affected village to ascertain the causes of death. "The team will consist of experts from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers and Ministry of Water Resources. It will also be assisted by experts from animal husbandry, food safety and forensic science labs," a Home Ministry statement said. The team would proceed on January 19 and in collaboration with the local administration would work on providing immediate relief as well as taking precautionary measures to prevent such incidents in future, it further said. "Experts from some of the most reputed institutions of the country have been arranged to manage the situation and understand the causative factors of deaths," it added. This comes after the mysterious deaths continued in the Pir Panjal Valley's Rajouri on January 17 as the death toll touched 16 with three more deaths reported in the past three days. Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah also chaired a high-level meeting to address the "alarming situation" on Friday. The latest victim, Jatti Begum, 60, wife of Mohammad Yousuf, succumbed within 12 hours of admission at the Government Medical College, Rajouri. Since December 7 last year, three major waves of deaths struck Badhal village and left 16 dead and at least 28 affected by unknown causes. All the deaths were reported within three families. Among the deceased were 11 children and a pregnant woman. A Special Investigation Team (SIT), comprising police and medical experts, has also been constituted by the Jammu and Kashmir administration after several national-level testing centres ruled out any spread of disease among those found dead so far. (ANI)
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