6 persons stranded in Kashmir blizzard rescued

Six civilians, who went missing on February 22 in a snow-bound area of Margan Top in south Kashmir, were rescued on Friday. Stating that the six persons had been missing for the past three days, Deputy Commissioner, Anantnag, Dr. Piyush Singla, said, “Their rescue operation was challenging due eight to 10 feet of snow in the area. It was around 4:30 a.m. on Friday that a 28-member joint team of Mountain Rescue, Army, SDRF, police and others started tracing the missing on foot in a high-altitude area and around 1 p.m. a contact was established.” After three nights in the snow, the stranded civilians were shifted to Kishtwar in Jammu. Officials said the civilians were going towards Warwan from Anantnag in south Kashmir and tried to cross the high mountain pass of the Margan Top to reach Warwan. “However, they got trapped at Margan Top due to heavy snowfall,” officials said. The rescued civilians were identified as Ajaz Ahmed, 30, Akbar, 25, Ghulam Nabi, 20, Gulzar Ahmed 18, Manzoor Ahmed, 20, and Irshad Ahmed, 18. They were all residents of Warwan area. Meanwhile, the Kishtwar police appealed to the general public of Kishtwar, especially Warwan and Marwah, “to avoid such roads during the winter season”.