Spiritual leader and associates killed in rockslide in Kamle district

ITANAGAR: A spiritual leader and four of his associates died on the spot when a massive rockslide buried their vehicle in Kamle district of Arunachal Pradesh on Friday night, a police official from the district said on Saturday. Reverend Christopher Hembrom, along with three of his associates—Nirmal Hembrom, Abhijit Hembrom, and Lokhinath Kisku—were buried alive when a massive rockslide hit their vehicle in the under-construction Trans Arunachal Highway (Package 5), in between Puchi-Geko and Muri-Mugli, around 2 km from Belak Muri towards Daporijo in Upper Subansiri district, at around 7 PM, Kamle superintendent of police (SP) Thutan Jamba informed

The spiritual leaders were on their way to Itanagar after attending a three-day mega healing crusade festival at Dumporijo in Upper Subansiri district. The festival was held from November 15 to 17, the police officer said. A team from Raga police station rushed to the spot and retrieved the bodies from the debris at around 9 p.m., the SP said, adding that the bodies were later brought to the Raga district hospital for a postmortem. The SP informed that after the postmortem on Saturday, the bodies would be delivered to their respective family members in Assam by the organising committee of the healing crusade festival. While Christopher Hembrom, the main leader, hails from Jalpaiguri in West Bengal, the other three are from Assam, Jamba said, adding that police have initiated an investigation into the incident.