A 10-year-old girl on Wednesday night became the 15th victim of a mysterious illness that has plagued a village in Jammu’s Rajouri district in the last one-and-a-half months, with the Jammu and Kashmir government on Thursday constituting a special investigation team to probe the deaths.

The girl, Zabeena Kousar, is the fifth child of Budhal resident Mohammad Aslam to die from the ailment. His sixth child, Yasmeen Kousar, 15, is critical, officials said. Aslam’s maternal uncle Mohammad Yousuf, 62, also died on Monday.

Most of the victims have been children. The deaths have sparked panic in the region, prompting the administration to collect hundreds of samples for tests and scan people against the backdrop of fears of food adulteration and the spread of a communicable disease.

The deceased belong to three families and live in a village spread over 1.5km. A government spokesperson on Thursday ruled out the outbreak of a communicable disease but said initial reports indicate the presence of certain neurotoxins in the samples taken from the deceased.

Aslam’s six children were admitted to the hospital on Sunday after they showed symptoms such as vomiting, fever, dehydration and loss
of consciousness. The other four victims in the family are his sons Zahoor, 14, and Maroof, 10, and daughters Navena Kousnar, 8, and Safiya
Kounsar, 6.

The first incident in the area was reported on December 7, 2024, when a family of seven fell ill after a community meal, leading to five fatalities. Nine more from another family were admitted to hospitals on December 12, three of whom died. The spokesperson said the government was closely monitoring the situation caused by the “unexplained illness”.

“Investigations and samples empirically indicate that the incidents are not due to a communicable disease of bacterial or viral origin and that there is no public health angle. Pertinently all samples have tested negative for any viral or bacteriological etiology,” he said.

The toxicological analysis conducted by the Council of Science and Industrial Research-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research has detected toxins in multiple biological specimens, he said.

Rajouri senior superintendent of police Gaurav Sikarwar on Thursday constituted an SIT headed by the superintendent of police (operations), Budhal, Wajahat Hussain. They include policemen and experts from the forensic medicine and toxicology, microbiology, paediatrics and pathology departments.