Army rescues ambulance carrying 9 from snow-bound Nstachung pass

Srinagar, Feb 23: Undeterred by threat of landslides and extremely bad weather, Army Rescue Team personnel rescued an ambulance carrying nine people, including two patients, at Nastachung Pass in the frontier district of Kupwara.

A Northern Command release said that an ambulance carrying nine people, including two patients--a pregnant woman and a 15-year-old boy under post operative recovery, were stranded at Nastachung Pass in Kupwara District of Jammu and Kashmir due to landslide at about 1930 hrs on Tuesday. It said teenager Madsoor Ahmed, son of Maksoor Ahmed, resident of village Parada, was being moved from Tangdhar to Chowkibal after undergoing a stomach surgery along with Waheed Mir Age, a 24-year-old woman from Tangdhar being treated for anemia in her advance stage of pregnancy, when they got stranded at Nastachung Pass in Tangdhar Tehsil with seven others in an ambulance.

The ambulance could not move to Chowkibal or return to Tangdhar because of landslides on either side. The dropping temperatures at an altitude of 10,000 feet above sea level was affecting the patients severely and could have been fatal for the anemic patient, had it not been for the swift reaction by the Army Rescue Team. The team not only cleared the way for the ambulance to return to Tangdhar but also provided medical relief and care to the patients.