PakistanPakistan's military hoped for a miracle yesterday as rescue teams searched for 124 soldiers and 11 civilians buried by a Himalayan avalanche near the Indian border. More than 24 hours later, there had been no sign of survivors.
The avalanche engulfed a Pakistani army battalion headquarters near a glacier on Saturday, leaving snow up to 25 metres deep over an area a kilometre wide.
The victims are trapped in one of the most unforgiving environments on Earth, at an altitude of 4,500 metres near the Siachen Glacier in the Karakoram mountain range.
Helicopter rescue teams and troops with sniffer dogs were racing against time.
The area is also one of the world’s most militarily tense frontiers, where the Indian and Pakistani armies have confronted each other over disputed territory for decades. – (Reuters)