Srinagar: A Beacon JCB operator was killed and two persons were rescued after an avalanche swept them at Farkin Top on Farkin-Keran road in North Kashmir’s Kupwara District on Sunday.
Official sources said the JCB operator, Amerdeep Singh and two others, Shakoor Ahmad Piswal son of Mohammad Gulzar and Mohammad Sumander Mir son of Suliman Mir, both residents of Farkin came under the avalanche. Police and locals carried the rescue swiftly. While Singh was evacuated in critical condition, two others were pulled out safely. Singh,they said, was shifted to MI Room of 268 brigade and later succumbed to his injuries.
With Singh’s killing, the death toll due to avalanche this season has risen to 25.
On March 1, bodies of three persons— Ghulam Mohammad Lone, Mohammad Altaf Mir and Bashir Ahmad Ganaie , all residents of Lolab—were retrieved under the snow mass at Lashkote forest area, six days after they were swept away by the avalanche.
On February 28, a 25-year-old, Abdul Aziz Beigh, died and another person was injured when they came under an avalanche at Hassangam-Malangam area in Tulail area of Bandipora district.
On February 16, a Russian skier died after being buried by an avalanche at Gulmarg, the world famous skiing resort.
On February 2, three soldiers were killed and another was injured after a snow avalanche swept away an army post came in Machil sector of north Kashmir’s Kupwara district.
On January 18, a Swedish skier identified by his first name Daniel was killed while another was rescued in injured condition by police and tourism officials after an avalanche struck Kashmir’s primer ski resort of Gulmarg, 54-km west of summer capital Srinagar.
Earlier on January 6, eleven persons including a junior engineer of Border Roads Organization (BRO)’s BEACON project were killed and two others wounded when swept by three successive avalanches in along Sadhna Top mountain pass in Kupwara.
Five soldiers died after being swept in avalanches or caught in snow storms at different locations in Kupwara and neighbouring Bandipore district in second week of December 2017. (with inputs from Tassaduq Hussain In Kupwara)
