A soldier and his relatives trekked snow-clad mountainous road for four days amid avalanche warning to carry the body of his mother to a remote village in north Kashmir’s Karnah area for funeral. The people alleged that the Army and the civil administration refused help to the distressed soldier forcing them to embark on the risky trek.
This is second incident of its nature in the area in less than three weeks. On January 10, people trekked for four days with the coffin of a former revenue official to carry his body for burial. The official had died in Srinagar’s premier SMHS Hospital but his body could not be airlifted.
Army soldier Muhammad Abbas’s mother Sakina Begum died on January 28 at Pathankot at the family quarter of the soldier. Begum was putting with her son during the winter period when life in remote Karnah becomes miserable due to road blockade and harsh weather. She had heart related complications, which caused her death.
Abbas carried the body to Chowkibal area, the last point in Kupwara, which was accessible in the aftermath of heavy snowfall in the region. However, he was unable to carry the body further. The soldier approached the district administration and the local army units for airlifting his mother’s body but he was turned back. The inclement weather was not allowing choppers to take off. The soldier waited for five days
for weather clearance but it showed no signs.
On Thursday, Abbas decided to trek the dangerous road. A group of villagers and his relatives assisted him to begin the treacherous journey through the mountains. The highest point on the road is Sadhna Pass, around 10,700 feet above sea level, which remains snow-clad for almost four months during the winters.
locals said the road stretch is covered by 6 to 10 feet snow layer. It took them around 11 hours to carry the body to the soldier’s native village.
The villagers later uploaded the shots of the challenging trek on internet and asked people to highlight the callousness of the authorities towards the people living in cut-off and forlorn regions of Kashmir.
The district administration says that the arrangement for chopper to airlift the body was made but by the time the legal heirs of the body had embarked on the journey by foot.
The defence spokesman in Srinagar Col Rajesh Kalia denied reports that the local army units refused to assist the soldier in distress. “All assistance for transportation of mortal remains of mother of the soldier, keeping the weather and snow conditions in mind, was made available by the unit of the jawans as well as by other army units en route,” Col Kalia said.
The incident t occurred when the divisional administration had issued avalanche warning in the hilly areas of Kashmir and asked the people to remain indoors. Five army soldiers died in the area earlier this week when the path they were patrolling on caved in burying the soldiers under tons of snow. Even as the soldiers were rescued, they died soon after their delayed airlifting to Srinagar.
This is the second incident of this nature in the Karnah region in three weeks. On January 10, people carried the body of former naib-tehsildar Jan Mohammad on a cot and trekked 50-kilometer stretch of the road. He had died in a Srinagar hospital but the body could not be airlifted for four days compelling his relatives to embark on a dangerous journey.
An official of the district administration said that while Sakina Begum’s body was being carried to her native village, the authorities airlifted 10 patients from Karnah for medical treatment in Srinagar.