SRINAGAR: At least 10 soldiers were killed after snow avalanches hit an army post and patrol party in Gurez sector, close to Line of Control (LoC) in North Kashmir’s Bandipora district of Jammu and Kashmir.
“An avalanche struck an army camp in Gurez sector close to LoC yesterday. 10 soldiers were buried under the snow in the avalanche,” defence spokesman in Srinagar Colonel Rajesh Kalia told Express.
He said army launched an operation to rescue the soldiers trapped in snow despite the xtreme bad weather and heavy snowfall.
Kalia said the team rescued a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) and six soldiers from the snow.
“Bodies of three other missing soldiers were retrieved from the snow,” he said.
The defence spokesman said another snow avalanche hit an army patrol in Gurez yesterday evening.
“The army patrol was moving towards the post when it came under the avalanche. The whole party got trapped in the snow,” he said without divulging number of soldiers, who were part of the patrol party.
He said braving inhospitable weather conditions, army launched coordinated operations to rescue the soldiers trapped under snow.
“During the operation so far, seven bodies have been recovered,” Colonel Rajesh said adding the rescue operation is going on.
An army official said at least five soldiers are missing and there are very thin chances of them been rescued alive.
“The area is witnessing continuous heavy snowfall, which is hampering the rescue operations,” he said.
Earlier, yesterday an army officer Major Amit Sagar was killed and seven others rescued after their barracks in an army camp in Sonamarg area of central Kashmir’s Budgam district were hit by snow avalanche.
Four members of a family were also killed yesterday in Gurez after their house was buried under snow after being hit by snow avalanche.
J&K Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti has expressed shock and grief over death of soldiers in snow avalanches in Gurez.
She conveyed her sympathies with the families of the deceased soldiers.
Mehbooba directed the administration to coordinate with army authorities and speed up rescue operations for tracing the other missing soldiers.
Kashmir has been witnessing snowfall from last three days. While the plains including Srinagar have been witnessing intermittent snowfall, the upper reaches including Gurez, Keran, Karnah, Gulmarg, Sonamarg, Tangdhar, Yousmarg and Uri have received heavy snowfall.
The ski resort of Gulmarg has received 7 ft of snowfall while Machil 3 feet, Z-Gali 3.6 feet, Keran 2.6 feet and Sadna Top 3.6 feet snow.
The heavy snowfall has increased risk of snow avalanches.
The authorities have issued avalanche alert for upper reaches of the Valley and urged people living there to stay indoors and clear snow from their rooftops.
The snowfall has snapped Srinagar’s surface and air connectivity with rest of the country.
For the third consecutive day today, Srinagar-Jammu national highway, only road link connecting Kashmir with rest of the country, remained closed for traffic and no flights could land at Srinagar airport.
Director Metrological department Kashmir, Sonam Lotus said Kashmir has received major snowfall in last few days.
“We had witnessed such snowfall in 1992 and 2006 but present snowfall has broken all past records of 25 years,” he said.
Lotus, however, predicted improvement in weather conditions from tomorrow afternoon.
“There will be significant improvement in weather conditions from tomorrow afternoon,” he added.