By IANS,
Srinagar : Eleven army personnel were killed and eight are missing in two overnight avalanches in Jammu and Kashmir, an army official said Thursday.
While eight were killed in Bandipora district, another three were buried under the avalanche in Ganderbal district, the official said. Both the areas are in north Kashmir.
Lt. Col. J.S. Brar, spokesman of the Srinagar-based 15 Corps, told IANS: “Eight army troopers were killed and eight are still missing while 13 have been rescued from the avalanche that struck the brigade headquarters in Dawar village of Gurez subdivision of Bandipora Wednesday night.”
“Operations are still on to rescue the eight buried under the avalanche,” he said. Gurez is located 109 km from here.
“Three soldiers of the Territorial Army, including a junior commissioned officer, were killed in another avalanche that struck an army camp late Wednesday night in Sonmarg resort in Ganderbal,” he added. Ganderbal is 87 km from Srinagar.
In a third avalanche, more than a dozen hutments in Ramwari area of Ganderbal during the night, but no loss of life occurred in the incident.
The area is inhabited by nomadic goatherds during the summer as they take their flock of sheep and goats there for grazing.
Only last week, a major disaster was averted in Ganderbal as a massive avalanche had blocked the passage of water in the Sindh stream that flows to the middle of Sonmarg resort.