Man from Uttarakhand goes missing in Turkey after earthquake

Kotdwar, February 9

A man from Uttarakhand who had gone to Turkey on an official trip has been missing since the catastrophic earthquake hit the country flattening several buildings and killing thousands of people, his family said on Thursday.

According to Vijay Kumar Gaud’s family, the hotel in which he was staying collapsed following the earthquake on February 6 and efforts to contact him ever since have gone in vain.

“His phone rings but no one responds,” Vijay Kumar Gaud’s elder brother Arun Kumar Gaud told PTI.

Vijay Kumar Gaud, who hails from Dhaksun village in Pauri’s Jaiharikhal block, was sent to Turkey on an official assignment by his Bengaluru-based employer Oxy Plant India Pvt Ltd, his elder brother said.

His wife and six-year-old son are worried. They had last talked to him on the phone on February 5, Arun Kumar Gaud said, adding that his brother was to return to India on February 20.

Meanwhile, some of his relatives in Padampur here met SDM Pramod Kumar on Thursday and handed over a memorandum seeking Vijay Kumar Gaud’s whereabouts.

“We have received a memorandum from Gaud’s family and are trying to ascertain his whereabouts. We are in touch with the Indian embassy in Turkey and the Turkish embassy in Delhi,” the SDM said.

The Ministry of External Affairs on Wednesday said an Indian was missing and 10 others were stuck but safe in remote regions of Turkiye even as specialist teams sent by India to the West Asian country commenced their search and rescue operations.