Kinnaur avalanche: Body of one of the trapped army personnel recovered

Shimla, Mar 02: The body of one of the five Army personnel who were trapped under the snow after the avalanche on February 20 in Himachal Pradesh's Kinnaur district, was on Saturday recovered said reports.

On February 20, the avalanche which was triggered when a glacier near Namgia Dogri slid, buried six soldiers of Jammu and Kashmir Rifles when they were on a routine patrol. One soldier, Rakesh Kumar, was rescued on the same day, but he succumbed to his injuries in a hospital at Pooh.

"Body of one of the five missing army personnel who had been trapped in an avalanche in Namgya since last 11 days was recovered today," news agency ANI quoted Deputy Commissioner Kinnaur as saying.

The operations to rescue five trapped Army personnel had to be stopped several time in the last 10 days due to heavy rain and snow which made it difficult for the resue team to dig through the snow.

On February 22, the rescue teams were on standby as the area was lashed by incessant snow blizzards and snowfall.

The search and rescue operation for the missing Army jawans was adversely affected as Pooh witnessed 4 to 5 inches snowfall whereas more snowfall occurred at Shipki La and its adjoining areas last week.

Five Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) jawans were also injured in the avalanche. They were identified as Belangeen, Rajneesh Kumar, Mohammad Ishan, Rambaran, Tele Tek Chand, Army sources said, as per a PTI report.

When the avalanche descended rapidly down from the mountainside near Shipki La, 16 Army and ITBP jawans had gone towards the border post from Namagya in order to repair a damaged water supply line. While eight ITBP jawans were on the hill overseeing the water supply line, the Army jawans were standing down the hill, the sources said, as per a PTI report. Six Army jawans were buried alive. One of them was rescued, but he succumbed to injuries subsequently.