Just a day after an Army officer and a soldier were among the people martyred in avalanches in Kashmir’s Bandipora and Ganderbal districts, the death toll rose to 10 soldiers following more avalanches in the valley.
As per the Army, ten soldiers were killed as two avalanches hit Gurez Sector of Kashmir. Earlier, the Army has refused to disclose the number of missing soldiers. The police informed that the men belonged to 51 Rashtriya Rifles.
The first avalanche hit an army camp in Gurez sector of Bandipora district. Several soldiers were trapped in that area near the Line of Control.
The rescue operations rescued 7 soldiers including a JCO. 4 soldiers of a patrolling party are missing in another avalanche in the same sector.
This took the toll to 10 missing bodies being retrieved and 7 rescued. Braving inhospitable weather conditions, further coordinated rescue operations are in progress.
Rescue teams are working to detect at least four missing soldiers, feared trapped under several feet of snow and rock debris. But the progress is slow because of the harsh weather and terrain.
Gurez is a mountainous region with a small valley across the Razdan Pass, the only road connecting with Kashmir Valley at the height of 11,672 feet. The Gurez valley, bordering Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), remains cut off due to heavy snowfall since the first week of January.
