Pakistani troops buried in Kashmir avalanche - Al Jazeera

Rescue mission under way near Siachen glacier where at least 117 soldiers and personnel are reported to be trapped.

The Siachen glacier, with over 150 military outposts, is the highest battleground in the world [Al Jazeera]

Rescue operations are under way after an avalanche hit a Pakistani army base in the disputed Kashmir region, burying more than 100 soldiers under the Himalayan snow. The soldiers were operating near the Siachen glacier in the northern tip of Kashmir when the avalanche hit in the early morning hours of Saturday. "At six o'clock this morning this avalanche hit a [military] headquarters," Major-General Athar Abbas, the Pakistan military spokesman, said. "Over 100 soldiers and personnel are trapped." Speaking to Al Jazeera, Abbas said a rescue operation using helicopters, search dogs and soldiers is under way but warned "it will take days to complete the rescue operations" due to the climate and the difficulty of  terrain. Despite describing the slide as "a massive scale avalanche", Abbas said Pakistani forces remain hopeful. A team of doctors and paramedics has also been rushed to the high-altitude region, which suffers extreme weather conditions, with temperatures on the Siachen glacier plummeting to as low as minus 70 degrees Celsius (minus 94F) during the winter. More than 12 hours after the disaster, no survivors have been found so far. The Associated Press news agency quoted a security official as identifying the trapped battalion as being headquartered in Gayari sector. Military sources have told Al Jazeera that helicopters had been flown to what has been described as the "very remote location" on the glacier. "This is an extremely remote region, and it would be difficult to continue the rescue effort at night," reported Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder from Islamabad. "And so far, there is no good news coming out, despite the fact that military is still saying that this is a rescue operation," he said. Hyder said that with more than 150 military outposts surrounding the glacier, the Pakistan and Indian sides face not only each other but "also face nature ... [on] the highest battleground in the world". Difficult terrain Shaukat Qadir, a former Brigadier in the Pakistani army, who has been to Siachen on numerous occasions, told Al Jazeera: "This is the biggest casualty that has ever happened." "We have fantastic accommodation for the soldiers. When you walk on this terrain you never know when it would come down, and certainly you cannot predict an avalanche," he said. The Siachen glacier, on the tip of the Kashmir region that both Pakistan and India claim, is home to an estimated 15,000 soldiers from both nations. Siachen, rising to 6,000 metres above sea level, has seen more soldiers die near the Karakoram base from weather-related incidents than gunfire since 1984. Qadir said: "Well, the fact of matter is that 70 per cent of the people have died because of natural causes, and I think this is the time we ended this damn conflict, which has absolutely no explanation." "I can just hope [President Asif Ali] Zardari talks about this with [Indian Prime Minister] Manmohan Singh [on his visit to India on April 8] and settles this issue for both, us and Indians."