Srinagar, Mar 28 (KNO): Kashmiri traders, fruit growers, students and labours stranded in different parts of India have pleaded for help and demanded evacuation amid the lockdown and scare over the Coronavirus pandemic across the globe.
According to wire service—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), a group of labours stranded in forests of Himachal Pradesh said that locals in Himachal Pradesh are not allowing them to stay there letting due to the growing scare over Covid -19, adding that the local administration there are not proving any help to them.
“We have decided to reach Kashmir by foot as we don't have anything here to eat or any shelter to live in,” they said.
“We are still 70 kms away from Pathankot road and we request authorities to make arrangements in Himachal where we can live or allow us to reach Kashmir by road where we are ready to go for screening and quarantine,” they said.
Labours have requested authorities in Jammu and Kashmir to help them in reaching home by any means. "Please think about us as well, take steps at an earliest so that we can reach home," they appealed.
Zahoor Malik, Shahabad Development Forum Chairman while talking to—KNO said that the stranded people approached him as they wanted to return to their native place. “I approached many people from Union Ministers Gajendar Singh Shikhawat and Thakur Anurag Singh and requested them for the safety and logistics support to these people to reach back to Kashmir,” he said.
He further said they assured him after some ease in the situation; the people stranded there will be evacuated safely.
Meanwhile a senior police official from Jammu division said that those trying to reach Valley in trucks carrying essentials, be advised to refrain. “Only driver and one cleaner will be allowed to proceed after getting the curfew pass. The rest will have to go to Kathua quarantine,” he said –(KNO)