Family members of the five trekkers from West Bengal, who went missing in an avalanche in Uttarakhand, on Friday urged the Bengal government to provide details of their whereabouts and end the agonising wait of the kin.
The daughter of Sadhan Kumar Basak, one of the five members of the trekking team, told reporters she cannot bear the anxiety any more.
“My father had last talked to us over the phone three days back. The local administration is not yet confirming the worst, but we have been getting varying reports.
“I am requesting with folded hands to both chief ministers (West Bengal and Uttarakhand) to trace and bring him back… to inform even if it’s the bad news. I just want to see his face,” the young woman, struggling to hold back her tears, said.
Apart from Basak, who hails from Thakurpukur on the southwestern fringes of Kolkata, three others from Bagnan in Howrah - Chandrasekhar Das, Saritsekhar Das, Sagar Dey - and one from Ranaghat in Nadia district were part of the team.
Ranaghat resident Pritam Roy (27), a student of MBBS fourth year of Murshidabad Medical College, was an intrepid member of the team having left for the expedition on October 10, and his family got the message on Thursday night that there is no news about him.
“I don’t know if my son is dead or alive, but I want to see him. He can’t be trapped in the snowy caves forever…,” his father Pramit Roy said.
Heavy rain battered Uttarakhand for nearly three days, beginning Sunday night, with the Kumaon division bearing the brunt of it.
