Avalanche buries 100 Pakistani soldiers on Himalayan glacier
An avalanche smashed into a Pakistani army base on a Himalayan glacier along the Indian border on Saturday, burying around 100 soldiers, the military said. - Helicopters, sniffer dogs and troops were deployed to the remote Siachen Glacier to rescue those trapped, according to a military statement. Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, the army spokesman, said he had no word on whether any people had survived the avalanche. The avalanche hit a battalion headquarters in the glacier’s Gayari sector at 5:45 a.m, according to a security official who didn’t give his name because he is not an official spokesman. Siachen is on the northern tip of the divided Kashmir region claimed by both India and Pakistan. Both countries station thousands of troops there, who brave viciously cold temperatures, altitude sickness and high winds for months at a time. Troops have been deployed at elevations of up to 6,700 metres (22,000 feet) and have skirmished intermittently since 1984, though the area has been quiet since a cease-fire in 2003. The glacier is known as the world’s highest battlefield.