STORY: Around 300 residents quarantined in India-controlled Kashmir after 17 unknown cause deaths
SHOOTING TIME: Jan. 24, 2025 
DATELINE: Jan. 26, 2025
LENGTH: 00:00:42 
LOCATION: New Delhi
CATEGORY: SOCIETY/HEALTH

SHOTLIST:
1. shot of India Gate
2. various of the houses of the affected families in the Budhal village (courtesy of IANS)

STORYLINE:

Local government authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir have quarantined around 300 residents of a village after reporting 17 unknown cause deaths and 11 others are undergoing treatment at different hospitals, officials said Friday.

The unknown cause of illness began on Dec. 7, 2024, in the Budhal village of Rajouri district, about 243 km south of Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir.

The decision to relocate the affected families and their extended relatives to the government facilities was taken after the local administration declared the village a containment zone, following five new cases in two days.

The houses of families where the deaths occurred have been sealed and entry inside them is strictly prohibited without permission from officials on duty.

Health officials struggling to unravel the illness have identified a common factor among all those who lost their lives as involvement of the brain and damage to the nervous system.

Meanwhile, a federal government team that visited the village to probe the deaths is continuing its investigation into the cause. Reports said the team had sent over 230 samples for testing to various institutes.

A local newspaper Dainik Jagran quoted federal junior minister Jitendra Singh saying the illness was due to cadmium toxin.

However, he clarified no other virus, bacteria, or infection was found in the victims' samples.

The local government earlier said investigations and samples indicated that the incidents were not due to a communicable disease of bacterial or viral origin and that there is no public health angle. However, it said the toxicological analysis had detected toxins in multiple biological specimens.

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from New Delhi.
(XHTV)