Srinagar, Feb 16:
With the first light on Sunday, rescue operation was resumed to find a person who went missing after a snow avalanche hit Gurez-Tulail area in north Kashmir district of Bandipora. Official sources said that a group of three persons
Rescue operation
identified as Arif Hussain, Ali Mohammad Lone and Javid Ahmad Lone were buried under a snow avalanche at Check Nallah on Gurez-Tulail road at 1530 hrs on Saturday. However, rescue operation was immediately launched by locals, police, Army and State Disaster Response Force, sources said. Hussain and Ali were rescued in injured condition and shifted to hospital last evening. The rescue operation was stopped at 2200 hrs due to darkness and threat of more avalanche, they said, adding that this morning, operation was again resumed at 0700 hrs to rescue Javid. The weather was good and operation was going on when the reports last came in, they added. The border towns of Machil and Keran in Kupwara and Gurez in Bandipora in north Kashmir remained cut off due to accumulation of snow and slippery road conditions besides avalanche threat on Sunday.
Dozens of other villages, including near the Line of Control (LoC), also remained cut off from their respective tehsil and district headquarters due to accumulation of several feet of snow and slippery road conditions.
However, the road to Karnah from district headquarter Kupwara reopened on Saturday after remaining closed for several weeks due to snow.
According to official sources, the Kupwara-Keran and Kupwara-Machil roads remained closed.
The snow clearance operation has been started from both sides, he said.
Due to closure of these roads, dozens of other villages near the LoC also remained cut off from tehsil and district headquarters.
Meanwhile, the road from Bandipora to Gurez, a border town surrounded by Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) from three sides, also remained closed due to accumulation of several feet of snow at Razdan pass. Due to closure of this road, over 20 border areas, including Neeru, also remained cut off from district headquarter Bandipora.
