The Indian army says six soldiers were killed when avalanches hit a military post and a patrol along the highly militarized Line of Control that separates the Indian and Pakistani-held portions of the Himalayan region of Kashmir. According to police officials in Bandipora, seven soldiers were rescued from the debris of the avalanches in the Gurez sector of the Line of Control (LoC), bodies of 10 soldiers were found while four others were still missing. Bodies of four missing soldiers were recovered from Gurez sector of Jammu and Kashmir that was hit by avalanches on Wednesday and Thursday taking the death toll to 14, police said on Friday. A Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) and six soldiers were rescued after avalanches hit their post on Wednesday, while bodies of three soldiers were retrieved on Thursday morning, it said. On Wednesday, an officer was killed in an avalanche at Sonamarg in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district while four members of a family died in another avalanche in Gurez sector. Avalanches and landslides are common in Kashmir and have caused some of the heaviest tolls for the Indian and Pakistani armies camped near the Line of Control.
At least 14 Indian Army soldiers and four civilians are killed in a series of avalanches near the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.