Social Media Keeps Hope Afloat In Flood-Hit J&K

The worst floods in recent memory in Jammu & Kashmir washed away hopes and dreams, leaving death and destruction in its wake. Phones came handy in making distress calls before they too conked out, forcing many harried people stuck in swirling waters and their relatives at safer places to take to social media to post desperate messages for help.

Bollywood actor Aamir Bashir, best remembered for his role in A Wednesday, tweeted his cousin's family was stuck on their rooftop in Raj Bagh in Srinagar on Sunday before they were rescued. There were dozens of such desperate tweets and posts on social media. In one of them, London-based novelist-journalist Mirza Waheed posted his aunt and family were trapped in their house in Qamarwari before he lost contact with them.

Kashmiris were united in grief across religious lines. Chandigarh-based Kashmiri student Japjyot Singh posted a heart-warming story of his family’s rescue from Raj Bagh. He wrote on Facebook his family was stuck on the second floor of their house and “were in a big danger".

He added but no rescue team, no army came. His father’s shikara wala friend, Gul, came from the Dal Lake, around six-km away, to save his family. "…was thanking him he told beta so what if your dad is a Sikh he's my brother and I can die to save his life," posted Singh.

Many netizens posted locations of their relatives stuck in flood waters on Google Maps to seek their rescue on Facebook and Twitter.

Opposition People’s Democratic Party lawmaker Naeem Akhtar posted a desperate message seeking rescue of his friends and relatives including his uncle and noted poet, Farooq Nazki, and his wife, who were are marooned and out of touch.

“Disaster has just unfolded itself. Going by the response to it, it could turn out to be a catastrophe. Have received frantic calls from friends, relatives and unknown people for help. One single demand is boats, the only life saving device needed now," he wrote on Sunday.

“Have spoken to everyone I know in administration but without success. Nobody picks up phones any more. Peer Ghulam Hassan Shah, the octogenarian legendary DGP and architect of J&K Police, is squeezed into his second storey with no help in sight."

He added Dr Shafqat, his hands on physician, had spoken to him from the third floor of his house in Raj Bagh. “Shahid, my young friend who ran a volunteer service till last evening in Raj Bagh, is also drowning as he informed me in panic. Lots of relatives in the area."

Tech savvy chief minister Omar Abdullah, who oversaw disaster management, updated people about rescue operations on Twitter. “Around 25 boats flown into Awantipura air base for South Kashmir rescue ops and are being sent to the affected areas," he tweeted on Sunday night.

Earlier, he announced boats have begun rescuing people and operations would continue as long as needed. “The boats flown in from Delhi have been launched in Srinagar's worst affected areas of Indiranagar, Shivpura, Rajbagh." He acknowledged tweets for help he was receiving and assured: “We are trying our best.’’

He called floods “an unprecedented situation" and urged people not to panic while assuring: “We will reach you, I promise."

Right-wing trolls as usual had a field day spewing venom, forcing a prominent Delhi-based journalist to tweet: “So now we have patriotic floods and anti-national floods, and patriotic disasters and anti-national disasters."