India, Aug. 17 -- Mandeep Saini came with his wife to her parental home in Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir, where she celebrated Raksha Bandhan on August 9. He stayed three days and left for home in Punjab on August 12 morning, for her wife to follow in a few days. She left with the family for a pilgrimage to the Chandi Mata Mandir in Machail just hours later, and is missing since flash floods hit the route to the shrine that same afternoon.

At least 60 people, most of them pilgrims to the Hindu shrine, were killed in the disaster triggered reportedly by a cloudburst. Bodies are still being recovered from Chasoti village and its surroundings.

"A day after a returned, on August 13, I got a call from my wife's brother-in-law. He to...