Rescuers search for missing as Kashmir avalanche toll crosses 200

February 23, 2005

Army and civilian rescuers are braving icy conditions and harsh Himalayan winds to search for survivors of devastating snowslides in Indian Kashmir as the death toll crossed 200.

"The rescue operation is continuing despite cold winds and teeth-chattering cold," said a police official in Qazigund, 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of the summer capital Srinagar, from where relief operations are being coordinated.

The town in Anantnag district is about 10 kilometers (six miles) short of a string of hamlets flattened by weekend snow avalanches.

"A total of 151 bodies had been recovered from the devastated hamlets by Tuesday evening," the official told AFP.

Police said another 50 people were killed in avalanches in the neighbouring districts of Doda and Poonch, taking the overall death toll since the weekend to 201. In all 229 people have died in avalanches in the past two weeks.

Basheer Khan, an administrator in Anantnag district, said some 74 persons had been rescued so far by the army and police, backed by civilian volunteers.

Officials are reluctant to speculate on how many people are still missing but civilian volunteers say they believe the number to be around 300.

"I and other volunteers were the first to reach the hamlets and I can tell you more than 300 people are still missing," said one volunteer, Manzoor Ahmed, who said most of the victims are from the poor Gujjar shepherd community.

A senior police officer in Anantnag said some areas were still cut off and had yet to be reached by rescuers.

He said some 1,200 residential and other non-residential structures had been flattened by the snowslides and more than 50,000 fruit trees destroyed in Anantnag district alone.

The leader of India's ruling Congress party Sonia Gandhi and the country's Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee were scheduled to visit Kashmir Wednesday to assess the damage, officials said.

The two were to make an aerial survey of the devasted hamlets, they said.

The Indian army has warned that fresh avalanches are possible as the snow begins to melt and has urged mountain-dwellers to flee their homes.

"People living in higher reaches must vacate before they're overtaken by tragedy," Major General Raj Mehta, a senior Indian army officer in the Kashmir valley, told reporters.

Authorities in Srinagar overnight restored power supply to hospitals, government buildings and a few suburbs but most of the Kashmir valley remained without electricity for the sixth consecutive day.

The weekend snowfall, the heaviest in two decades, severed telephone and power lines and closed all roadlinks inside the valley.

SOURCE: World News & Prophetic Trends