Snowfall: Authorities launch ‘Rescue Mission’ to trace 6 missing Warwan residents

SRINAGAR — As fate of six miss­ing per­sons from remote War­wan area of Kisht­war dis­trict hangs in the bal­ance, author­i­ties on Thurs­day launched a “res­cue mis­sion” to search them at Mar­gan Top in Anant­nag.

“One team is pro­ceed­ing by road along­with snow cut­ter machine and JCB, head­ed by SDM. It is accom­pa­nied by Tehsil­dar, MED and NHIDCL offi­cials,” Aamir Ali, Nodal Offi­cer, SEOC, Dis­as­ter Man­age­ment, told GNS.

He said sec­ond team is mov­ing by foot and com­pris­es Army Res­cue team and Local vol­un­teers.

“Third is by heli­copter from Larkipo­ra, cur­rent­ly on stand­by, wait­ing for weath­er to improve,” he said.

Ear­li­er a del­e­ga­tion head­ed by Sarpanch of the area met Divi­sion­al Com­mis­sion­er Jam­mu Dr. Raghav Langer for help to trace the miss­ing per­sons from Choidra­man War­wan.

“The Divi­sion­al Com­mis­sion­er told us that the air force and army will car­ry out search­es to trace the miss­ing as soon as the weath­er improves,” Sarpanch of the area Azad Nabi Lone told GNS over phone.

Azad said the divi­sion­al com­mis­sion­er asked if there are any shel­ters along the route. “I told him there are a few shel­ters on Mar­gen top and Nar­balan. There is a pos­si­bil­i­ty of their sur­vival if some­how the miss­ing per­sons have reached these shel­ters. Oth­er­wise chances of their sur­vival are very rare,” he said.

Offi­cial sources told GNS that amid fresh snow­fall, the six per­sons had start­ed their jour­ney by foot through Mar­gan top, a high moun­tain pass which con­nects War­wan Val­ley in Kisht­war dis­trict with the Anant­nag dis­trict.

The miss­ing per­sons, accord­ing to the Sarpanch include Ajaz Ahmad Koka son of Abdul Rehman Koka, Moham­mad Akbar Koka son of Ghu­lam Qadir Koka, Ghu­lam Nabi son of Ghu­lam Qadir Koka, Gulzar Ahmad son of Ghu­lam Moham­mad Koka, Man­zoor Ahmad son of Ghu­lam Moham­mad Koka and Idrees Ahmad son of Sun­na ullah Dar, all res­i­dents of Choidra­man War­wan.

The miss­ing per­son had called their fam­i­lies at around 9 p.m. on Tues­day and informed them about mov­ing through Mar­gan Top. Since then there is no con­tact with them, they said. — (GNS)