SRINAGAR, India, Feb 7 (AFP) - Six Indian
paramilitary soldiers died overnight when an avalanche smashed
into their mountain barracks in Kashmir after heavy snowfalls,
police said Monday.
Eleven members of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police
(ITBP) were in the building near Jawahar tunnel, 100 kilometres
(60 miles) south of Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar, a police
spokesman said.
"Five ITBP men were rescued and five bodies have
been recovered," the police spokesman said. "One ITBP member is
missing and presumed dead."
A search for the missing man continued amid
continued heavy snow fall, he added.
The ITBP is in charge of security at the
one-and-a-half mile (2.4 kilometre) long tunnel which connects
the restive Muslim-dominated Kashmir valley with the
predominantly Hindu Jammu region.
Snows forced the closure of the 300 kilometre
(186 mile) Jammu-Srinagar highway, the police spokesman said.