India: 60 tourists missing on 20 day bus trip

telegraphindia.com reported the last time Haldia teenager Ali Akbar spoke to his father was on Thursday. Then the lines in flood-ravaged Kashmir snapped. Families of 60 tourists from Haldia, who had booked a 20-day bus trip of north India, remained on tenterhooks with no news of the group after the worst deluge to hit Jammu and Kashmir in decades disrupted communication links amid reports that the toll had crossed 150. Akbar’s parents and sister were part of the group that left Bengal on August 28. A travel agent in Kharagpur who organised the trip said he last spoke to the driver of the bus on Friday. “Sankar told me he had been advised by police not to go to Srinagar. He was stopped on the outskirts. He told me he was returning but the road ahead was submerged. The call got disconnected then,” said Bitap Roy, the agent. Read Article