Staff Report

RAWALPINDI: Pakistan Army Monday issued satellite images of Siachen’s Ghyari Sector, the place where disaster of snow avalanche buried 139 Pak troops under snow.

The Pak Army’s efforts to winch the trapped soldiers are in progress since 52 hours; but, no headway in this connection could be made thus far.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) issued today the satellite images of the calamity-hit Ghyari Sector. It said the bad weather and sustained snowfall are adversely impacting the relief efforts.

The ISPR said the helicopter service could not be reinstated; hence, fresh reinforcement could not be transported to the affected battalion headquarters.

ISPR says 180 army men and 30 civilians were carrying out the rescue work. However, none of the missing men could be recovered after a huge snow slide engulfed a military complex, trapping 135 army troops and civilians under 80 feet snow.

Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani on Sunday reached Sukkardu and supervised himself the rescue operations. He was accompanied by Corps Commander Lieutenant General Khalid Nawaz Khan.

COAS, while visiting the site of rescue operation, said avalanche of such a magnitude was unprecedented in last twenty years of this Battalion Headquarters existence at Gayari, ISPR said.

COAS further said that Army has mobilized all available resources with the assistance of PAF to carry out full scale rescue operation.

Meanwhile, Gilgit-Baltistan government has announced ‘day of mourning’ on Monday over the sad incident. SAMAA