Rescue teams comprising of police, army, SDRF and locals on Sunday resumed the operation to retrieve the three persons who went missing under the snow mass following an avalanche at Lashkote- the top forest area of Dardpora, Lolab in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district.
The three persons are yet to be traced by the rescuers as the continuous snow and rains have hampered the operation last evening. Official sources told GNS that the rescue teams today took along with both the survivors namely Zameer Ahmad and Mohd Akbar to the site to help them in retrieving the trio buried under the snow mass. SSP Kupwara Shamsheer Hussain told news agency GNS that the rescue teams were dispatched today morning to the area which comprised of Police, local army unit, SDRF and locals to trace out the missing persons.
“The two persons who were part of the five members group were taken to the site to help the rescuers in retrieving the trio,” SSP said. Meanwhile, the authorities also learnt to have approached the High Altitude Warfare School (HAWS) for help in case the missing persons could not be traced by today evening. Pertinently, five persons had gone for hunting in Lashkote - the top forest area of Darpora which connects Lolab and Bandipora forest areas two days ago. They later divided into two groups one comprising three members while two others formed another group.
One of the survivors Zameer Ahmad son of Mohd Sayed, a resident of Affan had said that they had gone to the area two days ago. Zameer had said that he and another person Mohd Akbar Mir son of Mohd Subhan Mir took one location namely HumKhan Behak while three others were on the other side known as Gusbal Behak. As we were moving, an avalanche had struck, trapping three persons namely Altaf Ahmad Mir son of Bashir Ahmad Mir, Bashir Ahmad Ganie son of Ghulam Rasool Ganie and Ghulam Mohd Lone son of Ali Mohd Lone all residents of Warnow, Lolab.
“There was a huge noise which attracted our attention and we tried to locate three other members of the group by following the footprints but as we moved towards the area there was complete snow blanket and we tried our best to retrieve them but we too got trapped in the process,” Zameer had said, adding “We somehow managed to save ourselves and had later travelled several kilometers to acquaint people about it and the police.