Srinagar: Two civilians were killed after they were swept away by an avalanche,near the Line of Control (LoC), in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara district on Sunday.
The duo identified as Manzoor Ahmad Cheechi, 25, and Muhammad Rafiq Cheechi 27, were working as casual labourers and were busy clearing snow from the road when the avalanche struck them, a report said.
The victims were buried alive under heaps of snow after the avalanche hit the stretch of Tangdhar-Chowkibal road at Khooni Nallah, along 3,000m high Nasta Chhun Pass in the Shams Bari ridge.
Later, police and Army teams along with local volunteers retrieved the bodies of the victims, reports said.
Parts of Jammu and Kashmir have been experiencing heavy rains, and at places, moderate to heavy snowfall for the past few days following which the authorities issued a ‘medium danger’ avalanche warning, advising people not to venture into these areas.
In an earlier incident, ten Army soldiers including a junior commissioned officer were buried alive when a huge wall of frost and snow crashed into the remote Siachen Glacier, damaging a vast area which also had an Army camp located on it in the southern side of the area at a height of 19,600 feet in eastern Ladakh on February 3.
