Bodies of porters recovered, no trace of Norwegian skier, soldier

Srinagar Feb 13 (UNI) Bodies of two porters who were buried under snow at Sadhna top were recovered, while there was no trace of Norwegian woman skier, soldiers and porters who died under avalanche on January 8.

Official sources said bodies of porter Niyaz Ahmad and Mumtaz Ahmad were recovered by the rescues teams of police and security forces.

They were buried under a huge avalanche at Sadhna top on February 6 after the entire area experienced more than 14 feet of snowfall.

Sources said early recovery of bodies of porters and soldiers buried under an avalanche in Uri sector on January 8 were dashed by recent heaviest snowfall in 20 years.

The bodies could not be recovered before March when the snow melts, they said, adding rescue teams who searched the entire area could not find the exact location where the incident took place.

They said rescue teams of the Army made an aerial survey of the area but could find nothing. The rescue team could not even find any traces which could have suggested that incident had taken place there, they added.

The defence authorities had sanctioned Rs one lakh, while State government sanctioned Rs 50,000 to the next of the kin of porters killed under the avalanche.

The Army authorities had now decided not to use porters in the avalanche-prone areas and keep them in the base camp to avoid any tragic incident.

Similarly, success eludes rescue teams of police, Army and tourism department trying to trace the Norwegian woman skier who went missing on January 8 in Gulmarg heights.

UNI BAS DS BD1720