Poor climatic conditions are hampering recovery efforts two days after an avalanche buried greater than 135 Pakistani soldiers and civilians in what's referred to as the world's highest battlefield.
A 20-meter wall of snow plowed into the army complex within the Siachen Glacier region near the Indian border early Saturday. Both Pakistan and India have military outposts near the disputed glacier, high within the mountains of Kashmir.
An eight-member team of U.S. military experts arrived in Islamabad to assist in rescue operations, but were unable to travel to the location on Monday because of the bad weather. U.S. Embassy spokesman Mark Stroh told VOA Urdu Service the usa is able to do whatever it is able to to aid Pakistan care for the "horrific incident."
Pakistan's military says a team of experts from Germany and Switzerland is additionally arriving inside the country to supply help. Â
Nearly 300 Pakistani troops and civilians had been using bulldozers, search dogs and helicopters to find those buried under greater than 70 meters of snow. There isn't a sign that any one has survived the disaster. Military officials say no bodies were recovered to this point.
Pakistan's army chief, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, visited the disaster site on Sunday and supervised rescue efforts at the remote 6,000-meter peak.
Handout photograph taken April 8, 2012, released by the Pakistan's Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) shows Pakistan's army chief General Ashfaq Kayani (C) visiting with other military officials near the location of avalanches where some 135 people including 124 Pakistani soldiers are missing at the Siachen Glacier mountains. (AFP Photo)
The Pakistan military said as a minimum 124 soldiers from the 6th Northern Light Infantry Battalion and 11 civilians were buried under the snow.
Pakistan and India have thousands of troops stationed on each side of Siachen, which was violently disputed since 1984. However the region was calm within the last decade, with the inhospitable climate and avalanche-prone terrain claiming more lives than gunfire.
India's foreign secretary, Ranjan Mathai, says Prime Minister Manmohan Singh offered humanitarian assistance to Pakistan during Sunday's talks with President Asif Ali Zardari in New Delhi.
Pakistan and India both claim the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir in full. Territorial disputes over control of the rugged region have sparked two wars between the nuclear-armed neighbors.
From WhatNewsToday.net
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