Five Army soldiers and two BSF men were buried under a snow avalanche in Jammu and Kashmir’s frontier district of Kupwara which is receiving heavy snowfall, accompanied by occasional blizzard, for the past two days, officials here said.
They were part of a joint party deployed to clear snow from a patrol track in Farkiyan Gali of Keran sector along the line of control (LoC), officials added.
According to defence spokesperson Lt. Col. J.S. Brar, an avalanche struck the joint Army-BSF party near the LoC about 140-km northwest of here at about 7.20 am on Tuesday. “Five Army and two BSF jawans went missing when they were buried under an avalanche,” he said, adding that immediately three avalanche rescue teams along with avalanche rescue dogs were rushed to the scene. Also, a specialised ART from High Altitude Warfare School HAWS), Gulmarg, was airlifted to the area which has been cut off by road following heavy snowfalls.
The spokesperson said that extreme caution was being exercised due to inclement weather and possibility of more avalanches. “This avalanche itself is spread over a large area. The rescue operations have been suspended for the night,” he said confirming that only the corpse of BSF sub-inspector Narinder Singh could be retrieved from under the snow. In February last year, as many as 17 Army soldiers were killed in a similar incident in Gulmarg area.
Kashmir Valley and its neighbourhood have been hit by extreme snowfall, with temperatures dipping to as low as minus 22 degrees Celsius.
The supplies to the landlocked Kashmir Valley have also been badly hit following the closure of vital Srinagar-Jammu highway.