Kashmir – After a week of heavy snow, two avalanches on Wednesday, January 25, 2017 took their toll on Indian military operations in the Gurez area of Kashmir. Both an army camp and a separate army patrol en route to Line of Control were struck by avalanches.
Three soldiers were killed when the avalanche struck the army post. Eleven soldiers were killed when their patrol was caught in the avalanche. That is a total of fourteen soldiers who were killed in these two avalanches. (UPDATED)
NDTV.com reports that it is unclear how many additional soldiers are missing. Search efforts are on going for any missing soldiers, but strong winds, heavy snowfall and remote terrain is making rescue difficult.
Authorities have issued a high danger avalanche warning for the area.
Earlier on Wednesday, two separate avalanches killed an army major in Sonamarg and a family of four in Bandipora.
UPDATE 1/27: More reports are coming in from Kashmir. Aljazeera.com reports that 20 soldiers were killed. Yahoo.com reports that the total death toll is 20 in Kashmir.
