Four Indian soldiers, two civilian porters killed in Siachen

Four Indian soldiers and two civilian porters are killed after an avalanche hit them in Northern part of Siachen glacier in Indian occupied Kashmir.

According to the Indian army spokesmen said, group of eight soldiers patrolling near a post at a height of 5,485 metres (17,995 feet) were stuck in an avalanche in the Himalayan glacier

Indian Military sent a search and rescue team that pulled all eight people unfortunate team members of the petrol party from the snow and they were later airlifted to a military hospital.

“Despite being transported to the hospital alive, four soldiers and two civilian porters, succumbed to extreme hypothermia,” spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia told the AFP news agency.

Another army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Abhinav Navneet said the two surviving soldiers are undergoing treatment process.

Army Sources: Avalanche hits Army positions in the Siachen Glacier where some Army jawans are stuck under snow. Rescue and recovery operations are on by the troops. The avalanche had taken place in the Northern Glacier where altitude is around 18,000 feet and above pic.twitter.com/djaAlTp0qq

— ANI (@ANI) November 18, 2019

The Lieutenant also added that a military post of Indian army was also hit by the avalanche but no fatalities were reported there.

The Siachen Glacier is a glacier located in the eastern Karakoram Range in the Himalayas at about 35.421226°N 77.109540°E, just northeast of the point NJ9842 where the Line of Control between India and Pakistan ends.

Pakistani army helicopter saves 6 climbers hit by avalanche

The glacier’s region is the highest battleground on Earth, where Pakistan and India have fought intermittently since April 1984. Both countries maintain a permanent military presence in the region at a height of over 6,000 m (20,000 ft).

On 7 April 2012, an avalanche hit a Pakistani military base in Gayari Sector, near the Siachen Glacier region, trapping 140 soldiers and civilian contractors under deep snow. The incident occurred at an altitude of about 4,000 meters and 300 km northeast of Skardu (capital of Baltistan). It was the worst avalanche that the Pakistani military has experienced in the area.

After 52 days of search, on 29 May 2012, Pakistan declared that the 129 soldiers and 11 civilians were killed.