The Army has managed to make a breakthrough by establishing communication network with its formations in flood-ravaged Srinagar and will upload details on the social media of more than 20,000 people now lodged in relief camps there. This step will help relatives of the rescue people to track them as many inhabitants are tourists.
The Army has so far posted details of more than 600 people on the Facebook and WhatsApp and hopes to cover all those stranded in the next two to three days. The Army gathered the details after it established communication with Srinagar 15 Corps Headquarters. The Army engineers hope to restore mobile and landline connectivity for local populace in the next two to three days.
Faced with total breakdown of communication network, the Army resorted to social media two days back to forward more than 7,000 distress messages from all over the country to Udhampur based Northern Command. The Command, in turn, used satellite phones to pass on the messages to local units active in Srinagar to rescue stranded people.
In one such instance, an Army column saved a pregnant woman stranded along with 20 other people including two babies on the third floor of a building flooded with 12-13 ft water on Monday by using social media, Additional Director General (Public Information) Major General Shokin Chauhan said here on Tuesday.
Giving these details, he said the main task for the Army is to provide succour to those staying in the relief camps located all over the city. With all major roads still under water, transport link is a major problem, he said and efforts were on to drain out water from some of the roads for relief trucks to come into the camps and take away people from the camps to the airport. Incidentally, the roads connecting Srinagar airport to the city are also waterlogged and many people are stranded at the airport for the last two days.
Admitting that paucity of boats in the first two days delayed rescue efforts, Chauhan said more than 200 boats airlifted from different parts of the country including Jalandhar, Jammu, Jodhpur and Kolkata were now engaged in bringing out people from their water logged homes.
The Army also rescued Nepal’s acting Ambassador Krishan Prasad Dhakal, Emba-ssy’s Press Secretary Surendra Thapa and 15 others from Srin-agar. In addition, it also brought to safety a 58-strong SAARC golf team including a 28-member Pakistani squad. So far, 24,000 people have been rescued in Srinagar. Some other towns like Pulwama, Shopian and Baramulla were also badly hit.
The Army and IAF were speeding up their rescue and relief efforts as water level in Dal lake was rising, posing fresh threat to Srinagar. Incidentally, the Badami Bagh Cantonment was also flooded and the Army communication network there was badly damaged.
As regards anti-infiltration fence along the line of Control(lOC), Chauhan said some portions of the fence in Akhnoor, Poonch and Rajouri were damaged due to floods and landslides. However, there was no cause for alarm as the Army engineers were repairing the fence at war footing, he said.