3 soldiers killed, 18 missing in avalanche in Pakistan

Landslides triggered by heavy snow claimed the lives of three soldiers and left 18 others missing in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, the military said. The incident took place in the Kel area on the line of control with India, and the Pakistan Army said a rescue operation was under way. The missing were eight soldiers and 10 civilians. “Three soldiers embraced shahadat (martyrdom). Eight soldiers and 10 civilians are also missing,” the military said in a statement, adding that the landslides were a mixture of mud and snow. A first landslide hit early Friday, killing the three soldiers, said Raja Saqib Majeed, deputy commissioner of Neelam district, of which Kel is part. Later in the morning the 10 civilians and eight soldiers made it to the site to search for, he said. “Another landslide hit this rescue party and they were buried under it,” he added. In April, 140 soldiers were buried when a huge wall of snow crashed into the remote Siachen Glacier base high in the mountains in disputed Kashmir. They have all been declared dead.