She was about to cross into Tibet for a long-awaited pilgrimage - then her messages stopped

What the report says

Families in India are still waiting for news about two women who vanished after deadly flash floods in the Himalayan border region between Nepal and Tibet, according to BBC World News. The missing pilgrims are Subhrasree Chakraborty, 43, and Rina Banerjee, 54, both from Kolkata and both travelling as part of a Mount Kailash pilgrimage group.

BBC reported that Chakraborty had last messaged her husband on Wednesday morning after clearing Nepal immigration and saying the group was waiting to enter China. Her family believes she may have been near the Chinese immigration point when the floods struck, but they have not received confirmation of whether she crossed the border. Banerjee’s relatives said she also appeared to have completed Nepal immigration, though they do not know whether she was still on the Nepal side when contact was lost.

The article said the pilgrimage route had resumed after disruptions linked to the pandemic and India-China tensions, and that the group had already faced a landslide delay on the way to the border. Nepal authorities have listed the women among hundreds of missing people after the flooding, but the families say they have not been told who was rescued, missing or killed. The uncertainty has underscored both the scale of the disaster and the difficulties of getting information from a remote, high-altitude border area.