No headway in locating avalanche victims

Photo: Khizer Hayat Khan[/caption]Chitral Scouts Commandant Col Nizam Uddin Shah said 50 personnel of the Scouts, as many of the police besides Chitral Levies and local volunteers were working at the site of the incident but due to the difficult terrain and uncertainty about the exact location of the accident they were unable to recover more bodies. It may be noted that nine people, including seven students, were buried under an avalanche on Saturday afternoon. Two bodies were recovered from the area, one of a student and the other of a traveler. After visiting the site on Monday along with DC Chitral Osama Ahmad Waraich, Col Shah told local reporters that the valley where the incident occurred was too much difficult to reach and there was two to three feet of snow. He said to reach the spot of the incident one has to walk for three hours, so it is not possible to take any machinery to the site. Col Shah said eight students and one local man had been buried under the avalanche. He said one student miraculously escaped the incident but due to the severity of the avalanche he was not in a position to see how and under what circumstance his colleagues were hit by the avalanche. Col Shah said the people of the area had warned many times that the track was very dangerous to travel during rain/snowfall but the students opted to use it after the exam and met with the accident. He said the Chitral Scouts and police personnel were using sniffer dogs to locate the bodies and planning to start digging at six separate spots. He said the local people were of the view that instead of digging, pouring of water through pipes would be more fruitful to remove the snow. However, he added that fresh snow lying overhead the spot was also likely to fall on the people taking part in the operation.—Reporting from S. Nazir Hussain ]]>