巴基斯坦北部錫亞琴冰川地區(qū)7日發(fā)生的雪崩已經(jīng)導致135人被埋,其中包括124名巴基斯坦軍人,另有11名平民。巴基斯坦軍方發(fā)言人阿塔爾·阿巴斯7日在接受媒體采訪時還說,當?shù)貢r間7日早上6點左右,巴基斯坦北部錫亞琴冰川地區(qū)發(fā)生嚴重雪崩,位于錫亞琴冰川地區(qū)的一座巴基斯坦軍營遭到雪崩重創(chuàng)。這是有史以來巴基斯坦軍方在該地區(qū)遭遇的最嚴重的雪崩事件,被埋軍人中還包括一名上校。
At least 135 people including 124 soldiers and 11 civilians have been buried under a huge avalanche that swept through an army camp in Pakistan’s northern Siachen Glacier area early on Saturday. No survivors had been found more than 18 hours after the disaster.
Hundreds of troops - along with helicopters, sniffer dogs and mechanical equipment - have been deployed as part of the rescue effort in the hard-to-reach region.
FILE - In this Feb. 19, 2012 file photo, Pakistani Army soldiers with the 20th
Lancers Armored Regiment, carry supplies up the 2,400 meter (8,000-foot) mountain
near their outpost, Kalpani Base, in Pakistan's Dir district. An avalanche smashed
into a Pakistani army base on a Himalayan glacier close to India on Saturday, April
7, 2012, burying around 130 soldiers. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus, File)
Athar Abbas, Pakistani military spokesman, said, "This area is at an altitude of 15000 feet, and this is the rear headquarters for posts even higher up on Siachen. It controls those posts, commands them and sends supplies to them."
More than 18 hours have passed since the avalanche hit the army camp about 4,500 meters above the sea, and the chances for survival of those buried are looking rather grim given the area’s 50 degrees celcius below temperatures.
The local meteorological department has said that the weather would remain clear in Siachen from Sunday to Monday but that heavy snowfall would reach the area on Tuesday.
The army has remained tight-lipped about casualty figures from the disaster. But some local media outlets have reported that dozens of bodies have been recovered from the site.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani expressed shock at the loss of lives and the trapping of Pakistani soldiers in the avalanche, but said that the incident in no way would undermine the morale of soldiers and officers. Gilani also asked the authorities concerned to keep him abreast of the ongoing rescue operations.
Siachen, which is on the northern tip of the divided Kashmir region, is known as the world’s highest battlefield. Both Pakistan and India have stationed thousands of troops there since India occupied the heights of the glacier in 1984. Since then, more soldiers have died from harsh weather than combat, as they brave cold temperatures, altitude sickness and high winds for months at a time.