Srinagar, Feb. 2 (TNS): Three Indian army jawans killed and another was injured when swept by an avalanche at Machil sector along the Line of Control (LoC) in occupied Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara district on Friday.
Indian media reports said a forward post of army’s 21 Rajput at Sona Pindi Gali in Machil sector was hit by an avalanche at around 4:30 pm. Four soldiers were swept by the avalanche and a rescue operation was quickly started.
However, one soldier was found dead beneath moulds of snow by the rescuers whereas two others succumbed while being taken to the Army’s 92-Base Hospital in Srinagar’s Badami Bagh Cantonment, the reports said.
The deceased have been identified as Havaldar Kamlesh Kumar, Naik Balbeer and Sepoy Rajinder.
The condition of the injured soldier Sepoy Bipin is stated to be stable.
The incident occurred two days after authorities in occupied Jammu and Kashmir had on the basis of a report received from the Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment (SASE) issued a medium danger avalanche warning of level-3 for higher reaches of Baramulla district and low danger warning of level-2 in Kupwara, Bandipore, Shopian and Kargil districts of the State.
Also, a low danger warning of level-1 was issued for Poonch, Rajouri, Reasi, Ramban, Doda, Kishtwar, Udhampur, Anantnag, Kulgam, Budgam, Ganderbal and Leh district. The people living in higher reaches of these districts had been asked to avoid movement in the avalanche-prone areas and slopes.
Earlier on January 6, eleven persons including a junior engineer of Border Roads Organization (BRO)’s BEACON project were killed and two others wounded when swept by three successive avalanches in along Sadhna Top mountain pass in Kupwara.
Five soldiers died after being swept in avalanches or caught in snow storms at different locations in Kupwara and neighbouring Bandipore district in second week of December 2017.
