At Machil sector along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara district, three army jawans died and another was injured when an avalanche swept away on Friday.
An avalanche was hit at a forward post of the Army’s 21 Rajput at Sona Pindi Gali in Machil sector at around 4.30 pm, reports reveal. Four soldiers have swept away the avalanche and a rescue operation quickly began.
However, one soldier to have 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 deceased have been recognized as Havaldar Kamlesh Kumar, Naik Balbeer and Sepoy Rajinder. However, the other soldier, Sepoy Bipin was reportedly stable.
The incident transpired two days after the Jammu and Kashmir authorities reacted on the support of a report received from the Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment (SASE) announced 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.
The department also declared a low danger warning of level-1 for Poonch, Rajouri, Reasi, Ramban, Doda, Kishtwar, Udhampur, Anantnag, Kulgam, Budgam, Ganderbal and Leh district. The people living in higher areas of these districts had been warned to desist movement in the avalanche-prone areas and slopes.
A Swedish skier on January 18, identified by his first name Daniel was killed while another was rescued in injured condition by police and tourism officials. Reports state that he was killed after an avalanche struck Kashmir’s primer ski resort of Gulmarg, 54-km west of summer capital Srinagar.
Eleven persons, on January 6, 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.