Army troops rescue seven stranded policemen from Naran Valley

ISPR says a dead body was also recovered; search and rescue operations are still underway

Pakistan Army troops evacuated on Wednesday seven policemen who were trapped at their check post due to heavy snow fall in Naran Valley of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

“Seven police officials who were trapped at their check post due to heavy snow fall and snow sliding in Basil and Gatti Das areas of Naran were evacuated by army troops in a helicopter this morning,” the military’s media wing Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.



Further, ISPR said that a dead body was also recovered from the area. Search and rescue operations are still underway to locate other stranded people in the area.

Hundreds of tourists, among them women and children, had been stranded in Naran after a heavy snowstorm cut off the area from the rest of the country on Sunday. Snowfall came early this year and started lashing Kaghan Valley on Saturday and continued intermittently for a second consecutive day on Sunday.

The area from Naran to Babusar Top received up to four feet of snow, leaving the roads blocked and over 1,200 tourists, including women and children, from across the country stranded. They faced difficulties as they ran out of supplies amidst continuous rain and snowfall, according to news channels.

On Monday, Pakistan Army engineers and troops rescued as many as 250 stranded tourists, however, at least 15 injured mine workers in Behsar were stuck at a police post in Behsar. “With injured mine workers there are 20 policemen stranded at the police post and due to extreme weather conditions a helicopter could not reach the area for evacuation of the stranded policemen and injured mine workers, DPO Najibur Rehman had told The Express Tribune.



The first snow does not usually hit the northern areas until early December, with officials saying this was the earliest recorded snowfall in 40 years.