Over 100 stranded people rescued after cloudburst

The cloudburst struck Bajri Nallah near Zojilla pass on the highway, the only road linking the frontier region of Ladakh with the rest of Jammu and Kashmir, last evening causing multiple landslides, the spokesman said.

He said police swung into and rescued the passengers of over 50 stranded vehicles, mostly trucks loaded with essential commodities.

The rescued persons were brought back to Sonamarg, the spokesman said adding the highway remained blocked for vehicular traffic today as efforts are on to clear the landslides.

"The road clearance operation is in full swing and the highway is expected to be thrown open for traffic tomorrow," the spokesman said.

Meanwhile, official sources said a BSF jawan, who went missing yesterday after his post was washed away following a cloudburst in Gurez sector of north Kashmir Bandipora district, remained untraced even as the hunt continued for the second day today.

"The rescue operation is on but so far Head Constable N K Tiwari of BSF remained untraced," the sources said.

A BSF post and eight residential houses were washed away in a cloudburst in Tulail area near the Line of Control (LoC) yesterday.

Tiwari's five injured colleagues were rescued and were brought to a hospital here for treatment.