10 soldiers buried by avalanches in IOK

Search for the other missing soldiers was continued.

SRINAGAR: Avalanches killed 10 soldiers in Indian Occupied Kashmir after cascading onto an army post and a patrol along the Line of Control, the military said on Thursday.

The separate avalanches buried the soldiers under tons of snow on the Line of Control (LoC) in the remote Gurez area on Wednesday, an army spokesman told AFP.

A total of seven soldiers in the patrol, that was approaching a border post when it was hit, were killed. The avalanche that slammed into the army post left three soldiers dead, but seven have been rescued.

A search for the other missing soldiers was continuing, Colonel Rajesh Kalia said.



“With the recovery of bodies of four more soldiers from the patrol the toll in the avalanches is now 10,” he said after three bodies were recovered on Wednesday.

Dozens of Indian and Pakistani soldiers are killed by avalanches almost every winter along the LoC.

Indian Occupied Kashmir has been witnessing one of the most severe winters in recent decades.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 27^th, 2017.