Arun Sharma

It was not immediately clear whether the blast was caused by a landmine planted by Indian Army or an explosive device planted by militants from across the border.

The tunnel, previously known as the Z-Morh tunnel due to its shape, was inaugurated on Monday by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who also paid tribute to the seven people killed in a militant attack in October last year at a camp for those working on the tunnel.

“These (the deaths) were found to be localised and possibly having some epidemiological linkage,'' an official spokesperson said. “It was also given out that certain neurotoxins were found in the samples of the deceased persons, which is further investigated to know more about it.”

Since December 7, 17 residents have died in the village, forcing the Centre to take note and form an inter-ministerial team last week.

Omar Abdullah, who visited Baddal village on Tuesday along with minister Javed Rana and MLA Javed Iqbal Choudhary, met the bereaved families.

Comes at a time when district and state authorities are enforcing stringent measures in an attempt to prevent any more ‘spread'.

Police said the move came after Special Judge Sudesh Sharma of the NIA Court, Doda, issued orders under Section 83 of the CrPC, which allows for the attachment of property belonging to absconding persons.

As a celebrated writer, he was Convenor of the Dogri Advisory Board, Dahitya Akademi, New Delhi, for two terms, apart from being president of the Dogri Sanstha, Jammu, for a long time.

The doctors said they came to this hypothesis after patients from the same village who presented with similar symptoms showed improvement after they were given “atropine injections”.

Massive searches were launched simultaneously at nearly 2 dozen locations to curtail movement of militants from one place to another as they try to dodge search parties, sources said