The Army on Saturday rescued alive five soldiers who were trapped under snow when a pathway caved during incessant snowfall in north Kashmir’s Macchil sector. Defence sources said rescue teams were immediately activated and they retrieved the soldiers. However, some of them are in unconscious state. Sources said the Rashtriya Rifles’ soldiers were immediately shifted to hospital for treatment.
Meanwhile, the incessant snowfall prevented the IAF choppers to take flight to Gurez area of north Kashmir to airlift bodies of 14 soldiers who were buried under massive avalanches on January 25. Defence sources said IAF’s Mi-17 helicopters took several abortive sorties on Friday to make it to the mountainous Gurez sector. On Saturday, the helicopters could not even make an attempt, sources said.
The bodies of 14 soldiers have been retrieved from under 7 to 10 feet snow and kept at Neeru battalion headquarters. A senior Army officer said that the bodies would be dispatched to the soldiers’ native places from Srinagar based XV corps headquarters.
The Gurez valley in north Kashmir’s Bandipore district is around 150 kilometers from Srinagar and remains cut-off from Kashmir Valley during winter months due to heavy snowfall.
The Razdan pass between Gurez and Bandipora remains inaccessible due to heavy accumulation of snow.
The Army has identified the soldiers killed in Gurez avalanches as a Naib Subedar Aram Singh Gurjar of Rajasthan’s Karoli, Havaldar Vijay Kumar Shukla of Madhya Pradesh’s Murena, Naik Ajit Singh of Uttar Pradesh’s Azamgarh, Sepoy Azad Singh of Uttar Pradesh, Sepoy Devander Kumar Soni of Madhya Pradesh, Sepoy Elaverson B of Tamil Nadu, Sepoy Nagaraju Mamidi of Andhara Pradesh, Sepoy Samundare Vikas of Maharashtra, Sepoy Sandeep Kumar of Karnatak, Sepoy Sanju Suresh Khandare of Maharashtra, Sepoy Sundar Pandi of Tamil Nadu, Sepoy Sunil Patel of Gujarat and Craftsman Ankur Singh of Haryana.
The Army has retrieved body of Major Amit Sagar who was caught in a separate avalanche at Sonamarg in Ganderbal district.
Meanwhile, the normal life remained hit in the Valley for the third consecutive day due to heavy snowfall. A few flights landed at Srinagar International airport in the morning but the heavy snowfall prevented continuation of the air traffic in the later part of the day causing cancellation of several flights. The vital Srinagar-Jammu national highway remained blocked for the fifth consecutive day. Reports said that the incessant snowfall has caused severe damage to residential houses and properties across the Valley.
Around 21 persons, including 15 soldiers and four members of a family died in the snowfall so far. This is the third major snowfall of the Chillai Kalan-the 40-day period of harshest winter in Kashmir starting December 21. last year there was no snowfall in the region during this period.