Kashmir avalanche: Rescue operations over (Lead)

Rescue operations were over by Tuesday morning for people in the Indian Army's high altitude warfare training camp in Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla district which had been buried under a massive avalanche, an army spokesman said. Seventeen soldiers including one officer were killed in Monday's incident.

“Seventeen soldiers including a captain were killed and seventeen others wounded when an avalanche struck a group of trainees of the High Altitude Warfare School (HAWS) in the Khilanmarg Mountains Monday,” a defence spokesman said here.

HAWS is located in Kashmir's popular tourist resort Gulmarg.

“Over 60 soldiers were rescued alive from under the avalanche debris and the bodies of the dead soldiers were also recovered in the rescue and relief operations which started immediately in the area despite heavy snowfall and extreme weather conditions there,” the spokesman said.

HAWS also has a campus in north Kashmir's Sonamarg hill station.

“We immediately moved out snow cutting machines, snow bikes and skiers to the disaster site and joined the relief and rescue effort along with the army and the state police,” said Javaid Bakshi, chief executive officer of the Gulmarg development authority.

Khilanmarg is situated five km from Gulmarg at an altitude of 10,000 feet above sea level.

Asked why the trainees had not been moved out of the camp when the local weather department had already issued an avalanche warning Monday, the defence spokesman said: “The area where the training course was going on in Khilanmarg had no history of avalanches."

Of the 17 injured soldiers, six have sustained multiple fractures, while others have been discharged after treatment.

Two soldiers who were reported missing Monday have also been rescued from the area, according to army sources.

HAWS has been training soldiers in high altitude survival and also those who are deputed for duty at the Siachen glacier, the world's highest battlefield.

Last updated on Feb 9^th, 2010 at 13:46 pm IST--IANS