Avalanche buries 130 Pakistani soldiers

7 April 2012 07:06 am

An avalanche smashed into a Pakistani army base on the Siachen Glacier close to India today, burying around 130 soldiers, a security official said. Rescue efforts are under way on the remote and frigid Siachen Glacier, where thousands of Pakistani and Indian troops are based, the security official said. He spoke anonymously because the military had yet to release a formal statement.

He said the snow hit a battalion headquarters in the glacier's Gayari sector at 5:45 a.m.Siachen is on the northern tip of the divided Kashmir region.

The two neighboring countries have deployed troops at elevations of up to 6,700 metres (22,000 feet) there. There have been intermittent skirmishes since 1984, and the region is known as the world's highest battlefield.

More soldiers have died from the harsh weather there than combat  (Times of India)