SRINAGAR, Feb. 9: Two Army soldiers, a BSF trooper and a civilian have been killed and 25 persons injured in fresh avalanches and other weather-related incidents across the Kashmir Valley, officials here said on Tuesday. Twenty-five cattle also perished, they added.
The latest mishaps occurred along the Line of Control in Baramulla and Kupwara districts a day after 17 soldiers were killed and an equal number of others injured when a training centre of the Army’s High-Altitude Warfare School outside the ski resort of Gulmarg was hit by a massive avalanche.
Reports received here said that a huge avalanche struck Zarla Rekha Post II of the Army’s 75 Field Regiment down the Sadhna Gali (Pass) of Tangdar area in Kupwara district, 145 km from here, during the intervening night of February 8 and 9. Several bunkers and outposts were swept away burying 15 soldiers under heaps of snow.
On hearing about the mishap, hundreds of soldiers from 104 Infantry Brigade stationed about 20 km downhill rushed to the area to begin rescue operations.
The rescuers found one soldier, who could not be identified immediately, was already dead and another Sobedar Satish Ram who was missing is also presumed dead, the officials said, adding that 13 soldiers survived but some of them who were injured have been hospitalised.
In a separate incident, a BSF jawan was killed and two others were injured after a deodar tree was uprooted in the impact of heavy snowfall and fell on a residential barrack of 26 Battalion of the paramilitary force at Nowgam, also in Kupwara on Tuesday.
The police here said that the injured BSF jawans, namely head constables Davinder Singh and constables Aslamuddin Bhadana and Sajad Ali, were rushed to Baramulla district hospital where Aslamuddin died later.
In neighbouring Uri area, a private house was hit by a large stone during a landslide resulting in on the spot death of one Mohammad Yusuf Kali and injuries to five other family members.
Meanwhile, the relief and rescue operation launched at Khilanmarg on the peripheries of Gulmarg on Monday following a massive avalanche slammed a HAWS training centre killing 17 soldiers and injuring an equal number has been called off after every one present was accounted for. However, the bodies of the soldiers could not be brought to Srinagar due to continued hostile weather in the area, a defence spokesperson here said. He added that the avalanche came hurtling down on the 60-strong combat troops as they were scaling the icy walls of high-altitude Khilanmarg peak in near-zero visibility.
Yusuf Jameel