THREE SOLDIERS KILLED IN AVALANCHE IN J&K

SRINAGAR: Three army soldiers were killed on Friday in an avalanche near the Line of Control (LOC) in north Kashmir’s frontier district of Kupwara.

Army officials said a group of personnel posted in Machil sector of Kupwara came under an avalanche in the evening. “Unfortunately the army lost three valiant soldiers,” said an army spokesperson. “No one is missing.”

A soldier was injured in the incident and shifted to the army’s Srinagar-based hospital, according to local news reports.

The avalanche came after light snowfall in the mountains of Kashmir on January 30 followed by an earthquake, measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale, which struck Afghanistan and shook several parts of north India on January 31. After the earthquake, the government had issued an avalanche warning on Wednesday in various districts of the state, including low danger warning of level-2 in Kupwara. The warning was valid for 24 hours. Eleven people, including a two-year-old child, were killed in two separate avalanches that swept them away in Kupwara on January 5. On January 18, a skier from Sweden lost his life in an avalanche that hit a peak at the ski resort of Gulmarg in Baramulla.

Apart from conflict, weather has been a continuous adversary for security forces, particularly the army, in the region. In January last year, 21 people, including 15 soldiers, died in multiple avalanches in Kashmir region.