Today, Jammu and Kashmir police said in a statement, three soldiers of the Indian Army have gone missing following an avalanche. The avalanche struck the upper reaches of the Gurez sector in Jammu and Kashmir’s Bandipora District.
A Senior Official from the Army said, “The soldiers are missing from Mani Post in Bagtoor area of Gurez. Search operations are on to locate and rescue them.” He further added, “Efforts are on to trace the missing soldiers but continuous snowfall was hampering the rescue and search efforts.”
Apart from the soldiers, an Army Porter is also missing since Monday. He came under an avalanche in Tulail, Gurez sector. The Jawan was returning from a forward post in the Gurez sector.
This is not the first time that the Indian Army members in Jammu and Kashmir have faced an avalanche. Earlier in January, 10 soldiers lost their lives due to the avalanche in Gurez near Line of Control (LoC) in North Kashmir’s Bandipora District. In April, 3 soldiers lost their lives due to an avalanche in the Batalik sector.
The Kashmir valley received fresh snowfall, experiencing the first snow of this season. The hill resorts of Pahalgam and Gulmarg also received a round of fresh snowfall.
An Official of the Meteorological Department (MeT) said, “Srinagar experienced 3.5 cm of snow and rainfall while recording a minimum temperature of minus 0.2 degrees.”
The MeT department alerted the residents of an active Western disturbance between the 12th and 15th of December. The Western disturbance is likely to cause widespread moderate to heavy rain or snow across Jammu and Kashmir.
