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Friday, April 13, 2012

Siachen Update: Rescue operation underway

The harsh weather do not affect the morale of soldiers searching for their companions in Siachen. The weather continues to be harsh and unfriendly, posing operational and administrative difficulties for both men and machines busy in the rescue operation. The rescue operators have started working on another priority point (Sixth Site) while continuing thier rescue search to the earlier 5 identified points. Massive relief and rescue operation is in progress at Gayari as 15 heavy machines including dumpers, dozers, excavators and loaders are working at the search site. According to the details, at point one, excavating has gone down up to 115 feet. Work will start at 130-feet-long horizontal tunnel with a dia of 3 meters to attain access to the accommodation area while on point two, excavation work has gone down to 100 feet. To access the priority points, a 450-meter-long access track has been developed and is being improved by adding sub grade for traction of wheeled plant equipment on the avalanche. The work on both main access tracks is underway to increase the total length to 1.5 kilometers. Last week, 135 men (124 soldiers and 11 civilians) were buried alive in an avalanche in the Gayari sector of the snowy region. At 21,000 feet, the Siachen glacier is 77 kilometres long, three kilometres wide and is located on the strategic tri-junction between India, China and Pakistan. A ceasefire in 2003 was unable to deter the militaries of India and Pakistan from patrolling the treacherous piece of ice and both countries have been engaged in one of the costliest deployments on either side of the Saltoro Ridge.The weather continues to be harsh and unfriendly, posing operational and administrative difficulties for both men and machines busy in the rescue operation but expectations of workers higher to rescue in any cost.

Peace in Syria

A ceasefire has come to an effect following the expiration of the deadline in Syria. A peace plan was proposed by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan to bring an end to more than a year-long uprising in Syria. Though there were no reports of violence since 06:00 (03:00GMT), western countries have still expressed their concerns over the intentions of the Syrian regime. Syria has said it would abide by the ceasefire but reserved the right to respond to attacks. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the sound of explosions in the town of Zabadani, close to the border with Lebanon, shortly after the 6 a.m. (0300 GMT) deadline expired, but said it was not clear what had caused the blasts. A resident of the town said there had been shelling of the town overnight, but that she heard nothing after the deadline. Other activists in the cities of Hama, Homs and Damascus said the situation was calm. Syria s Defence Ministry said on Wednesday it would halt operations on Thursday morning, but made no mention of an army pullback from cities and said it would confront "any assault" by armed groups. Attacks on opposition neighbourhoods over the last week have fuelled doubts it would comply with the truce. None of the activists said they had seen any sign of tanks pulling back from urban centres, one of the points Syria agreed to under the ceasefire.