Tassaduq Hussain
Tangdhar: Rescuers pulled the final dead bodies from the snow on Saturday afternoon, raising the final death toll in devastating avalanches near Sadna Top in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district to 11.
Official sources told INS that with the recovery of the bodies of ten persons near ‘Khooni Nallah’ area, everyone person known to have been at the site when avalanche struck on Friday afternoon has now been accounted for.
Two persons including a child and 46-year-old were pulled out alive. While the child, Sulieman, was found alive almost two and a half hours after the avalanche struck, the 46-year-old Ghulam Nabi Bhat son of Ali Mohammad Bhat of Kalmona (Tarathpora) was pulled out around 3 a.m., twelve hours after he along with other persons were swept away by the snow mass. Both were rushed to the Kupwara district hospital from where they were shifted to Srinagar for specialized treatment. The dead include three women, six men and a child.
A huge avalanche had engulfed a TATA Sumo vehicle (JK09A-3249), which was on way to Tangdhar from Kupwara, at ‘Khooni Nallah’ at around 2.30 pm on Friday, burying up to 12 people under it.
While seven persons were travelling in the sumo cab, five others were sitting besides the vehicle when the avalanche swept them away. The information was divulged to the police by the sumo driver who escaped the natural fury unhurt, officials said.
The rescue operation by a joint team of army, police and locals was started soon after the incident and continued throughout the night and better half of Saturday.
“I would personally like to thank locals who went to the spot and helped in locating the missing persons,” SSP Kupwara Shamsheer Hussain said.
As reported already, a beacon officer, MP Singh of 109 RCC died and another official was injured in a separate avalanche near the Sadhana Top. Singh’s body was found on Friday evening. In all eleven persons died in the avalanches near the Sadna Top.
