Six days on, five missing armymen remain untraced
SHIMLA: The army on Monday deployed more men and machines to trace five soldiers missing since Wednesday’s avalanche near Namgia Dogri outpost along the India-china border in Himachal Pradesh’s tribal Kinnaur district.
Contingents of the army and Indo-tibetan Border Police (ITBP) resumed rescue operations at 7 am.
The army deployed men with chain saws and drill machines to cut through thick hardened snow to retrieve the soldiers buried in snow mound for six days, said an official in Kinnaur.
“Snow and blizzard had hampered rescue operations on Sunday,” he added.
The army has deployed specialised teams of mountaineers from Dogra Scouts who are equipped with thermal radars. Sniffer dogs have also been deployed to rescue the missing soldiers. “With the weather clearing, search operations for remaining five buried persons of the army trapped under an avalanche in Dogri Nullah are progressing with renewed vigour,” said an army spokesman.
On Monday, the army and ITBP deployed nearly 270 men. The track had been partially cleared, the spokesman said.
The avalanche was triggered on February 20 when a glacier near Namgia Dogri slid, burying six soldiers of J&K Rifles when they were on a routine patrol.
Meanwhile, an alert was also issued by Kullu deputy commission warning people to avoid approaching higher altitude areas in the wake of heavy rain and snow fall prediction on February 26-27. He said public must avoid travelling late night on Mandi-kullu highway.