Valley under white siege

SRINAGAR: Three foreign skiers who went missing from the Sunset Peak near Kongdoori Apharwat in Gulmarg following a ceaseless snowstorm, were rescued on Wednesday.

A team of High Altitude Warfare School (HAWS) and ski petrol rescuers of the tourism department rescued them from Bushtar-Hapat Khud in the upper Gulmarg area. They have been identified as Eudo Niger and Guy Lundon of Israel and Roghni from Norway.

Joint director of the tourism department Sarmad Hafiz said the foreigners had gone to Sunset Peak for skiing two days back and fell victim to a massive hailstorm.

“Luckily, Eudo was carrying a mobile and he sent us a text message. They took shelter in a hutment for Gujjar nomads. One of the Israelis dislocated his shoulder in a minor accident,” Hafiz said.

Earlier, the army and the tourism department had dispatched three separate teams to rescue the trapped tourists. According to defence spokesman Lt Col AK Mathur, the army had kept the helicopter standby to locate the tourists. But owing to poor visibility, it failed to take off.

“The footfall of foreign tourists in Gulmarg has been high this year,” said Hafiz. In February alone, nearly 2,400 foreigners visited Kashmir, he added.

Meanwhile, around 1,000 stranded passengers have been airlifted by special AN-32 and IL-76 planes of the Indian Air Force from Jammu and Srinagar. The passengers were stranded for the last eight days following the closure of the 300-kilometer Srinagar-Jammu highway.

An Australian tourist recently died when he was hit by an avalanche in the upper reaches of Gulmarg.