Srinagar, Jan 17: The villagers living along the Line of Control (LOC) in Kashmir have to face a tough time in the winters as these areas get closed for the weeks due to the heavy snowfall but the Army has come to their rescue.
The LoC areas fall in the higher reaches of Kashmir including in Uri, Boniyar, Kupwara and Gurez sectors. These areas get disconnected with the rest of Kashmir for weeks.
Noor Din, 60, a resident of Charunda village along the LoC in Uri sector had fallen ill a few days back. “The army sent doctors to his house for three consecutive days but when he didn’t recover, he was taken to the hospital by the army on a stretcher,” Lal Din Khatana, sarpanch of Charunda village told Greater Kashmir over phone.
He said that their area receives snowfall of three-four feet in winters and gets disconnected with the rest of the country for weeks.
“Army helps us in our bad times when local administration is unable to reach out to us and we help them too in their different initiatives which benefit the locals,” Khatana said.
On 11 January, Army in a statement said that it received a distressed call from the remote border village of Chotali in Boniyar sector of Baramulla district requesting urgent medical assistance for a woman with severe abdominal pain.
“The soldiers lifted the pregnant woman on a stretcher and walked back to their detachment, where first aid was provided. Later a vehicle was arranged to evacuate the patient to PHC, Boniyar,” said Mohd Ashraf Chauhan, numberdar of Maidanan village.
Anwar Hussain, sarpanch of Gawalta village along LoC in Uri said that the Army has opened their road recently which was closed for the last ten years due to some landslides.
“We had taken up this issue with the various departments but nobody paid any heed to our issue. But the Army recently made that road motorable for traffic. We had to suffer in the winters when there used to be heavy snowfall and we would have to walk on foot to reach the main road,” he said.
The villagers of LoC areas in Kashmir have to face hardships in winters especially when these areas are covered in the white blanket of snowfall. The patients, pregnant ladies and elders are the worst sufferers while the essential services also don’t reach on time to these areas. Such areas are under direct surveillance of the Army.