Narrow escape for Telangana BJP MLA in Amarnath

Hyderabad, July 9: It was a narrow escape for Telangana BJP MLA T. Raja Singh and his family from the flash floods triggered by a cloudburst near the the Amarnath cave shrine in Kashmir which claimed 16 lives. Singh and his family members had left the shrine after darshan a few minutes before the flash floods hit the area on Friday.

"We had hardly travelled a kilometre on ponies to descend the hills when we saw water sweeping away tents. This can't be described in words. I had never seen such a thing in my life," Raja Singh said.

The member of the Telangana Legislative Assembly from Goshamahal constituency in Hyderabad said he saw 20-30 people being washed away in the floods. The MLA along with his family members had reached Pahalgam three days ago. From there they booked a helicopter to go to Amarnath on Friday morning.

"When we reached Amarnath, there was a long queue of about 10,000 people. It took 3-4 hours for us to have darshan and after lunch we left," he said. The BJP leader said as the weather had suddenly changed, the chopper service was cancelled. They decided to use ponies to descend the hills.

"We could see the cloudburst about 1 km down the hills. Several tents were swept away in the floods," Raja Singh said. As the MLA is under special security protection, the Army helped the family reach Srinagar. According to Singh, a large number of devotees from Telangana were stranded.