Kashmir Avalanche Kills 6 Soldiers, Traps 60

Snow, rain hinder rescue efforts
By Jane Yager,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 8, 2010 4:25 AM CST
Kashmir Avalanche Kills 6 Soldiers, Traps 60
A Kashmiri walks over a snow-covered field in the outskirts of Srinagar, India, Friday, Feb, 8, 2008, after avalanches.   (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Six Indian soldiers are dead and about 60 trapped beneath the snow of an avalanche that hit an army training center in a ski resort town in Indian-controlled Kashmir this morning. Rescue operations are under way but are being hindered by incessant rain and snowfall. The soldiers were swept away during a training session of the army's High Altitude Warfare School, AP reports.

The soldiers were among hundreds of thousands of military personnel stationed on both sides of the Line of Control, the highly disputed border between Indian and Pakistani Kashmir. Avalanches and landslides are frequent in the region, which sits high in the Himalayan mountains. Indian Kashmir has seethed with violent separatist protests in recent weeks, the Washington Post reports.
(More Kashmir stories.)

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