Kupwara, May 4: At least eight persons were injured in multiple dog bite incidents at different places across Lolab area in frontier north Kashmir’s Kupwara district on Wednesday.
Reports reaching news agency, said that stray dogs attacked and injured people at Rakhi Gundmacher, Gundmacher, Sogam and Maidanpora areas.
An official identifying the victims as Afroza Begum (47) wife of Shakeel Ahmed Lone, Ulfat Riyaz (15) daughter of Riyaz Ahmed Lone, Zahoor Ahmed Lone (35) son of Ghulam Ahmed Lone, Shayista Begum (28) wife of Showkat Ahmed Lone, Salik Zahoor (8) son of Zahoor Ahmed Lone – residents of Sogam, Mufaza Begum (52) wife of Abdul Jabbar Bhat, of Rakhi Gundimacher and Mohammad Jamal Sheer Gojri (55) son of Ghulam Hassan of Gundimacher and Mir Salam (10) son of Javeed Ahmed Mir, of Maidanpora told GNS that all the persons were taken to SDH Sogam for treatment.
Meanwhile the inhabitants have alleged the authorities of inaction regarding the dog menace in the area. “It was just a few weeks ago that nearly a dozen people were injured in similar attacks at Tekipora and Diver villages but with the fresh spate of attacks now, it clearly seems that the administration is not bothered at all to tackle the issue at all”, a local inhabitant said.
“One genuinely fails to understand, what more would it take for the authorities to take action to control the menace”, he rued adding “the elderly, women and children have become an easy target for the dogs.”
When contacted, SDM Lolab Aijaz Ahmad told GNS that the area was not a municipality demarcated area, however he was quick to add that alternate measures were being sought to control the incidents of such type.
“We have as an immediate measure directed the police stations concerned to eliminate the canines, deemed as potential danger to human population”, he said adding in similar incident(s) taking place in Diver area, the police did eliminate many dogs, which attacked the people there.