Srinagar: Three Army jawans died and another was injured after they were swept by an avalanche at Machil sector along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara district on Friday.
The police and Army sources said a forward post of the Army’s 21 Rajput at Sona Pindi Gali was hit by an avalanche at around 4:30 pm. Four soldiers were swept.
One soldier was found dead beneath moulds of snow by the rescuers whereas two others succumbed while being taken to the Army’s 92-Base Hospital in Srinagar’s Badami Bagh Cantonment area. The deceased have been identified as havaldar Kamlesh Kumar, Naik Balbeer and sepoy Rajinder.
The condition of the injured soldier Sepoy Bipin is stated to be stable.
The incident occurred two days after the Jammu and Kashmir authorities had on the basis of a report received from the Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment issued a medium danger avalanche warning of level-3 for higher reaches of Baramulla district and low danger warning of level-2 in Kupwara, Bandipore, Shopian and Kargil districts of the State.
On January 18, a Swedish skier identified as Daniel was killed while another was rescued after an avalanche struck Kashmir’s primer ski resort of Gulmarg, 54-km west of Srinagar.
