The Pakistani military on Sunday dug through snow, boulders and slush within an increasingly desperate hunt for 135 people buried within an avalanche, as hopes faded of seeing any valid survivors.
Nearly 36 hours following a wall of snow crashed right into a remote army camp up high in the mountains of Kashmir, rescuers were yet to recoup any survivors and even bodies in the Siachen Glacier, where Pakistani and Indian troops face off.
The camping ground was engulfed between 5:00am and 6:00am on Saturday -- perhaps when some were sleeping -- with a mass of snow, stones, mud and slush greater than 1,000 metres (3,300 feet) wide and 25 metres high, the military said in the statement.
About 180 military personnel and 60 civilian rescuers were braving freezing temperatures on the inhospitable site near to the de facto border with India, in area referred to as world's highest battlefield, the military said.
Experts acquainted with the glacier said there was clearly little hope of finding survivors -- the military said overnight that 135 everyone was missing from your camp, including 124 soldiers in the 6th Northern Light Infantry battalion.
"There is not any hope, there isn't any chance in any way," mountaineering expert Colonel Sher Khan told AFP.
"You can survive only inside the first 5-10 minutes," said Khan. "The casualties in avalanches occur because of pressure of heavy weight, extreme cold and not enough oxygen."
The powerful army chief General Ashfaq Kayani visited the epicentre with the disaster and "supervised rescue operations himself", the military said.
"The avalanche for these a magnitude was unprecedented in last Twenty years of this Battalion Headquarters existence at Gayari," he was quoted saying.
General Kayani instructed the commanders "to optimally utilise all available resources available and leave nothing unturned to achieve out to the entrapped personnel," it said.
"It's a massive, huge avalanche," a senior military officer told AFP, adding rescue work would take a couple of days.
Specially trained search-and-rescue groups of army engineers built with the latest locating gadgets and machinery had arrived, the military statement said, joining rescue units aided by sniffer dogs and helicopters.
"Adequate medical staff has been created available for the management of injured persons in forward field hospitals," it added.
A tailor and 2 hairdressers were on the list of civilians missing inside the thick snow inside the militarised region of Kashmir, which includes caused a couple of the three wars between India and Pakistan since their independence in 1947 from Britain.
The usa Sunday expressed its "deep concern" for that soldiers kept in the avalanche and offered assistance inside the search operations, the usa embassy said.
"We offer our condolences should you have lost their lives because of the avalanche," it said.
"The United states of america is ready to assist Pakistan searching, rescue and recovery operations."
Siachen was a flashpoint when India occupied key areas twenty six years ago, including the heights, prompting Pakistan to right away respond by deploying its forces.
The nuclear-armed rivals fought a fierce battle over Siachen later, raising fears of all-out conflict, even though guns around the glacier have largely fallen silent since a slow-moving peace process was released in 2004.
India and Pakistan have spent heavily to maintain a military presence about the glacier, where temperatures can plunge to minus 70 degrees Celsius (minus 95F).
New Delhi reportedly spends greater than 40 million rupees ($800,000) daily on its Siachen deployment -- a figure that will not include additional wages and bonuses.
Experts already have said that India has around 5,000 troops about the glacier, while Pakistan has fewer than half that number. The tough weather and altitude claim additional lives than actual fighting.
Avalanches and landslides frequently block roads and then leave communities isolated out in the wild of Pakistan, neighbouring Afghanistan as well as in Kashmir.
In February, no less than 16 Indian soldiers working in the mountains of Kashmir were killed when two avalanches swept through army camps.
President Asif Ali Zardari on Sunday had become the first Pakistani head of state since 2005 to see India, for any one-day trip targeted at building goodwill.
Source : http://ph.news.yahoo.com/rescue-resume-deadly-pakistan-avalanche-052236131.html
Nearly 36 hours following a wall of snow crashed right into a remote army camp up high in the mountains of Kashmir, rescuers were yet to recoup any survivors and even bodies in the Siachen Glacier, where Pakistani and Indian troops face off.
The camping ground was engulfed between 5:00am and 6:00am on Saturday -- perhaps when some were sleeping -- with a mass of snow, stones, mud and slush greater than 1,000 metres (3,300 feet) wide and 25 metres high, the military said in the statement.
About 180 military personnel and 60 civilian rescuers were braving freezing temperatures on the inhospitable site near to the de facto border with India, in area referred to as world's highest battlefield, the military said.
Experts acquainted with the glacier said there was clearly little hope of finding survivors -- the military said overnight that 135 everyone was missing from your camp, including 124 soldiers in the 6th Northern Light Infantry battalion.
"There is not any hope, there isn't any chance in any way," mountaineering expert Colonel Sher Khan told AFP.
"You can survive only inside the first 5-10 minutes," said Khan. "The casualties in avalanches occur because of pressure of heavy weight, extreme cold and not enough oxygen."
The powerful army chief General Ashfaq Kayani visited the epicentre with the disaster and "supervised rescue operations himself", the military said.
"The avalanche for these a magnitude was unprecedented in last Twenty years of this Battalion Headquarters existence at Gayari," he was quoted saying.
General Kayani instructed the commanders "to optimally utilise all available resources available and leave nothing unturned to achieve out to the entrapped personnel," it said.
"It's a massive, huge avalanche," a senior military officer told AFP, adding rescue work would take a couple of days.
Specially trained search-and-rescue groups of army engineers built with the latest locating gadgets and machinery had arrived, the military statement said, joining rescue units aided by sniffer dogs and helicopters.
"Adequate medical staff has been created available for the management of injured persons in forward field hospitals," it added.
A tailor and 2 hairdressers were on the list of civilians missing inside the thick snow inside the militarised region of Kashmir, which includes caused a couple of the three wars between India and Pakistan since their independence in 1947 from Britain.
The usa Sunday expressed its "deep concern" for that soldiers kept in the avalanche and offered assistance inside the search operations, the usa embassy said.
"We offer our condolences should you have lost their lives because of the avalanche," it said.
"The United states of america is ready to assist Pakistan searching, rescue and recovery operations."
Siachen was a flashpoint when India occupied key areas twenty six years ago, including the heights, prompting Pakistan to right away respond by deploying its forces.
The nuclear-armed rivals fought a fierce battle over Siachen later, raising fears of all-out conflict, even though guns around the glacier have largely fallen silent since a slow-moving peace process was released in 2004.
India and Pakistan have spent heavily to maintain a military presence about the glacier, where temperatures can plunge to minus 70 degrees Celsius (minus 95F).
New Delhi reportedly spends greater than 40 million rupees ($800,000) daily on its Siachen deployment -- a figure that will not include additional wages and bonuses.
Experts already have said that India has around 5,000 troops about the glacier, while Pakistan has fewer than half that number. The tough weather and altitude claim additional lives than actual fighting.
Avalanches and landslides frequently block roads and then leave communities isolated out in the wild of Pakistan, neighbouring Afghanistan as well as in Kashmir.
In February, no less than 16 Indian soldiers working in the mountains of Kashmir were killed when two avalanches swept through army camps.
President Asif Ali Zardari on Sunday had become the first Pakistani head of state since 2005 to see India, for any one-day trip targeted at building goodwill.
Source : http://ph.news.yahoo.com/rescue-resume-deadly-pakistan-avalanche-052236131.html
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