Death toll in the deadly landslides at the Sharda Sector in Azad Kashmir climbed to 18 on Saturday as rescuers recovered more dead bodies.
Sixteen bodies, including that of 12 soldiers, have so far been retrieved. A military rescue operation swung into action after heavy snows on Friday triggered two landslides at a remote outpost in the Kel area of Azad Kashmir near the Line of Control (LoC) with India.
The soldiers were on a mission to find three colleagues buried by an earlier avalanche on Friday. The party of rescuers had found two bodies when another avalanche struck in the mountainous Neelum Valley. ISPR has confirmed that bodies of five soldiers including an officer and four civilians buried under the snow were recovered on Saturday. Search was under way for remaining missing persons.
"Three bodies of soldiers were recovered yesterday. The bodies of five soldiers, including a captain, and four civilians have been recovered today (Saturday)," said a statement by the military.
As per police, bodies of the persons retrieved so far were identified as M Anwar, M Khurshid, M Afzal, Gul Hussain Munir Ahmad, Capt Imran, non commissioned officer Dost M, Havaldar Mehmood Alam, Sepoy Matin Ahmad, Sepoy M Khan, Sepoy M Tahir, Sepoy M Sakhawat Hussain, Sepoy M Hussain, Sepoy M Aslam, Sepoy Atta Ullah, Sepoy Farman Hayat and Sepoy Khalid.
Local administration officials said they were searching for more dead bodies as nine people from the rescue party were still missing.
In April, 140 soldiers were buried when a huge wall of snow crashed into the remote Siachen Glacier base high in the mountains in Kashmir. They have all been declared dead, although some of the bodies remain buried.
That tragedy renewed debate about how much sense it made for a country where millions live below the poverty line to maintain outposts in Siachen, dubbed "the world's highest battleground", at immense cost when violence had decreased.
And in February, at least 16 Indian soldiers on duty in the mountains of Held Kashmir were killed when two avalanches swept through army camps.
Sunday 2 December 2012
http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/national/02-Dec-2012/avalanche-death-toll-reaches-18
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