COVID crisis: Stranded residents of Jammu and Kashmir say special trains 'are a blessing'

Shabir Ahmed has been earning his livelihood by selling Kashmiri shawls in West Bengal, where every year he along with several Kashmiri Shawl sellers go during the winters and earn enough to sustain them for the entire year. "We are a group of five shawl sellers from our locality who go together to sell shawls in West Bengal. During summers, we make the shawls and in the winter season we sell the shawls," Shabir said. But this year things were different for Shabir and his fellow Shawl sellers as they all got stranded in West Bengal following the nationwide lockdown.

"We were stranded in West Bengal in our room, where we had to spend all our savings. We had no money to return home, but we are thankful to the Jammu and Kashmir government that finally we have been brought home," Shabir said.

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1,37,864 J&K residents evacuated

The Jammu and Kashmir government has evacuated a large number of local residents who were stranded at various places across the country. A government spokesman said that like Shabir, the Union Territory Administration had evacuated over 1,37,864 residents from various parts of the country. "The Jammu and Kashmir Government has evacuated about 1,37,864 JK residents, stranded in other parts of the country due to COVID lockdown, via Lakhanpur and through special trains and buses till date amid strict observance of all necessary guidelines and Standard Operating Procedures," the spokesman said.

He said that as per the official data received in this regard, the Jammu and Kashmir administration has received 53 special trains at Jammu and Udhampur railway stations from different states and UTs, so far, with about 42,072 passengers while about 95,792 persons from other states and UTs including 324 from abroad have been evacuated by the government through Lakhanpur till date.

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"A total of about 1,37,864 J&K residents stranded outside have been brought back to the UT by the Jammu and Kashmir government by 53 special trains and a fleet of buses through Lakhanpur after strictly observing all necessary preventive measures regarding the Virus", he said.

He said that as per the detailed breakup of the figures, about 1,723 stranded passengers including 107 passengers from Kuwait (abroad) have entered through Lakhanpur from June 13 to June 14 mornings while 864 passengers have reached today in the 32nd Delhi COVID special train at Jammu. 

"So far, 32 trains have reached Jammu with a total of 26376 stranded passengers belonging to different districts while 15,696 passengers have reached Udhampur in 21 special trains, so far," he said. Meanwhile, Shabir who had reached Jammu via a special train says that he is thankful to the government for bringing him back home. "Finally after several months, I will be able to meet my family members, this has been really a hard time for me", Shabir said.

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(Image credits: PTI)