Hopes fade for soldiers missing in avalanche

Srinagar: Hopes of finding alive the five soldiers, who went missing following heavy snowfall along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, are fast receding as blizzard-like conditions are hampering search and rescue operations.

Two soldiers slipped down a mountain slope in Naugam sector of Kupwara district while three others went missing from a forward post in Kanzalwan sub-sector of Gurez in Bandipora district during heavy snowfall yesterday.

An Army porter is missing since Monday after he came under an avalanche at Tulail in Gurez sector. “The search and rescue operations have been going on intermittently since yesterday both in Naugam and Gurez areas but so far we have not been able to locate the missing soldiers,” an Army official said today. He said blizzard-like weather conditions caused by heavy snowfall were hampering rescue operations.