Six soldiers were buried alive when a massive avalanche hit Siachen glacier in Ladakh division of Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday. One soldier, who was part of the patrolling party, is still missing.
The incident occurred at 6.15 am when the patrol of 1-Assam regiment was going from one post to another at sub-sector Hanif of Turtuk area on the Siachen glacier.
“At 6.15 am today (Sunday) our posts at a height of over 17,000 feet came under an avalanche in sub sector Hanif in Turtuk area of Siachen. Immediately avalanche rescue teams along with avalanche rescue dogs were pressed into service (for rescue operations). Six jawans have unfortunately lost their lives,” said Lt Col Colonel Jagmohan S Brar, defence spokesman at Srinagar.
Troops have retrieved the bodies of all the six soldiers. However, one jawan is still missing. Rescue teams of the army had to suspend the operations due to the poor weather conditions, said Lt Col Brar.
Sources said the army rescue teams will resume the operation with the first light of Monday subject to the weather conditions.
Last year 135 Pakistani army soldiers were buried alive when a massive avalanche swept away their posts across the AGPL at Siachen. It took them months to retrieve the bodies of the soldiers from the snowy grave.
Meanwhile, on the basis of report from Snow & Avalanche Study Establishment (SASE) the divisional disaster management Kashmir has issued a medium danger avalanche warning for the snowbound areas of Banihal, Chowkibal, Tangdhar, Machil, Keran, Gurez, Sonamarg, Drass and higher reaches of Kargil and Gulmarg.
“People living in snow bound areas above 2,500 meter are advised not to venture in steep avalanche- prone slopes. They are also advised to keep cleaning the snow from their roof tops of their houses to avoid any causality due to roof collapse,” said Aamir Ali, coordinator disaster management cell Kashmir.
