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Local authorities unable to confirm reports about recovering Protima's body

There has been no confirmation of the reports about the recovery of danseuse Protima Bedi's body in the landslide-affected Malpa village in Pithoragarh district.

Uttar Pradesh principal secretary (home) Naresh Dayal said in Lucknow that although the director general Indo-Tibetan Border Police, Gautam Kaul, had been quoted as saying that Bedi's body had been recovered, the state government has not been able to confirm the same with its local officials in Dharchula.

Dayal said 66 relatives of 55 Kailash Mansarovar pilgrims were sent to Dharchula from Pithoragarh by a helicopter while nine bodies were flown from Malpa to Dharchula.

Of the 18 bodies sent since Saturday, six had been identified as those of local residents.

Meanwhile, reports from New Delhi said more than 70 relatives of the Kailash-Mansarovar pilgrims killed in the landslides at Malpa have been airlifted by Indian Air Force helicopters to Pithoragarh from Bareilly over the weekend while two batches of yatris, held up at Gunji and Kalapani, have been provided food and medicine.

An external affairs ministry spokesman said the local authorities, army and ITBP were looking after the arrangements for the relatives of dead pilgrims.

He said the IAF was in full readiness to airlift the ninth batch of pilgrims, who are at Gunji, and the eleventh gorup, which is stranded at Kalapani, as soon as the weather improves.

Another group of yatris, the eleventh batch, is at Talakoti in Tibet and will cross over on August 27.

A massive operation is on by the relief and rescue team and work had already started on providing an alternate route to Malpa.

The ministry has, meanwhile, advised the directorate general of civil aviation to extend all help to the relative so the pilgrims who want to airlift the bodies to their hometowns.

The external affairs ministry has urged relatives to contact the district magistrate of Pithoragarh, L R Yadav (tel nos: 05964-22201, 23001, 22441, 2230 and fax 22395) and the district magistrate of Bareilly (Tel: 0581-472450, 457043 and fax: 457001) for details.

UNI

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