Two soldiers rescued after being trapped for 35 hours in avalanche
Published: February 11, 2005
The Army today rescued two soldiers of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) after a gruelling hunt of 35 hours. The soldiers were trapped under an avalanche, which occurred during a rescue operation launched in search of nine missing ITBP personnel.
They were found inside a fibre glass toilet buried under 10 feet snow.
At least six soldiers were killed in Monday’s avalanche, which led to the blockade of the national highway for more than three days.
“We were carrying out the rescue work at the avalanche hit area. Snow clearing work was in process. Then for a few minutes I went to the toilet, all of a sudden another avalanche struck and next we realised that we were trapped under snow. And we were later on rescued after 35 hours,” said Ghulam Rasool, rescued soldiers who is undergoing treatment at a Srinagar hospital.
The avalanche blocked the main Jawahar Tunnel cutting off road links between main cities Srinagar and Jammu. The IAF is also flying regular sorties to evacuate the stranded Army men.
Ram Narayan, another rescued soldier, who received minor injuries on his hands, said: “We were trapped for more than 34 hours praying that somebody listens to us. We were shouting for help but all in vain. But then we were rescued today by the grace of God.”
Dr. M.M. Arora, physician, said: “It’s a miracle despite being trapped in avalanche they got trapped in air pocket. Had they been trapped up in the mud pocket then these men would have also met the same fate as other six soldiers.”
Due to continuous snowfall, rescue operations have been stalled on the highway. Authorities say at least 1500 people have been shifted to shelters, government buildings and private houses along the highway. They say snowfall in Kashmir during this winter is the heaviest in five years.
The Srinagar-Jammu highway passes through some of the most tricky mountain terrain in the Pir Panjal mountain range. The road gets blocked each time there is a heavy snowfall in the winters or landslides due to heavy rains in summers. (ANI)
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