An officer from project ‘beacon’ of the Border Roads Organisation was killed while eight others are missing after a passenger taxi they were traveling in was hit by an avalanche near Sadhana Pass on Kupwara-Tangdhar road in northern Kashmir on Friday afternoon, the police said.
The deceased Beacon officer was identified as Mangla Prasad Singh, a junior engineer from 109 RRC.
An official source said that the avalanche hit a TATA Sumo vehicle (JK09A-3249), which was on way to Tangdhar, at ‘Khooni Nallah’ at around 2.30 pm. They said that seven people were in the taxi, while three were hit by the avalanche when they were walking in the area.
Following the incident, a rescue operation was launched by the police and army in which a child was rescued and shifted to sub-district hospital Kralpora, station house officer Kralpora police station, Waseem Ahmad, told Greater Kashmir.
The child was one among three persons who were walking when the avalanche hit the area, he said, and confirmed the death of the Beacon officer.
Those travelling in the taxi were identified by the police as Shafeeqa Begum (she was with her one-year-old baby), Nahida Bano, Fazal Hussain Shah, Chapa Bagum, and Fareed Hussain—all residents of Karnah. The identity of another passenger could not immediately ascertained.
Senior superintendent of police, Kupwara, Shamsher Hussain told Greater Kashmir that the site where the avalanche hit is amid dense forests.
“The avalanche hit the vehicle when it was not in motion,” he said.
He said that driver was not inside the vehicle and is safe. He identified him as Zahoor Ahmad Khan son of Maqsood of Chetarkote, Karnah.
Hussain said that there is no visibility because of dense fog in the area, and the rescue operation gets hampered.
“Right now it is snowing in the area,” he said this evening, adding that rescue teams of the police and army are on the spot.
FRESH SNOWFALL IN KASHMIR
Meanwhile, most of the upper reaches in Kashmir experienced fresh snowfall on Friday.
A meteorological department official said that in next 24 hours, there likely chances of rain and snowfall at isolated places across the Valley.
However, he said that the western disturbance which was active over the region is “turning weak.”
The official said that while the night temperature marked an improvement at most places in Kashmir division last night, the mercury in Gulmarg and Kokernag decreased from the previous night.
The official said that Srinagar recorded the minimum temperature of minus 3.2 degrees Celsius, a slight increase from minus 3.9 degrees Celsius yesterday.
He said that Gulmarg in Baramulla recorded a low of minus 9 degrees Celsius, three degrees colder than the previous night, while Kokernag in Anantnag registered a low of minus 3.4 degrees Celsius, compared to minus 2.5 degrees Celsius the previous night.
The official said that the mercury in Qazigund settled at a low of minus 4 degrees Celsius, up from the previous night’s minus 4.4 degrees Celsius, while Kupwara recorded a low of minus 2 degrees Celsius.
Pahalgam in Anantnag recorded a low of minus 4 degrees Celsius, up from minus 4.5 degrees Celsius the previous night, he said.
The official said that Kargil continued to shiver as the minimum temperature there settled at minus 20 degrees Celsius, same as the previous night.
Meanwhile, minister for disaster management, relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction, Javaid Mustafa Mir, on Friday directed that movement of traffic should be restricted along vulnerable roads in the event of adverse weather predictions.
He asked the divisional commissioner Kashmir Baseer Ahmed Khan to monitor the joint rescue operations launched by the army, police and state disaster response force in Kupwara where a taxi came under an avalanche. He directed that proper medical aid be provided to two injured persons who were miraculously saved and recuperating at district hospital Kupwara.