265 stranded passengers airlifted to and from Kargil

Kargil, Jan 4 (UNI) As many as 201 passengers stranded here since November last year were airlifted to Srinagar yesterday while 100 more were eagerly waiting in this border district of Jammu and Kashmir to go to their homes, official sources said today.

The Army operated five sorties of AN-32 yesterday to airlift the passnegers stranded here since the closure of 422-km Srinagar-Leh national highway in the second week of November last year.

As many as 64 stranded passengers were also airlifted from Srinagar to here.

The sources said 100 more stranded passengers were eagerly waiting to be airlifted to Srinagar.

Meanwhile, the authorities were yet to trace the body of a teacher who had gone missing from the snow-bound Zojilla Pass in the last week of November.

Police had then recovered the body of another teacher who had also gone missing while they were on way to their homes in Kashmir after being caught in a storm triggered by heavy snowfall at Zojilla Pass. They were on foot.

The body of the missing teacher, Syed Shabir Ahmad Andrabi from Pulwama district in south Kashmir, was recovered from Zojila Pass.

However, the body of the second missing teacher, Bashir Ahmad Mir from Akingam, Anantnag, was yet to be traced.

The recovery operation, which had been halted due to bad weather and frequent snow storms, would now be resumed in March.

UNI