Search ops to locate missing trekkers yield no results

Bad weather today hampered search operations, including aerial recce, by rescueteams to locate the eight engineering students who went missing near ChandrakhaniPass in Kullu district.
Seven students of Institute of Engineering and Technology (SLIET), Longowal atSangrur in Punjab, along with one former student of the same institute, have been missingfor more than fifty hours.
The trekkers had left from Nagger on Thursday.
Fourrescue teams constituted by Kullu district administration are combing the entirearea in the vicinity of Chandrakhani Pass but their task has become difficult as thefootprints of the students on snow have disappeared due to fresh snowfall.
There has been no contact with the missing students and rescue teams are making allpossible efforts to trace them, officials said.

The search teams conducted aerial survey by helicopters but inclement weather and stormy conditions thwarted their efforts.

A 24-hour helpline has been put in place to keep the family members of the students informed about the progress of rescue operations, SP, Kullu Padam Chand said.
The missing students were identified as Hitendra Sharma from Theog, Chetan Chori and Saurav Sharma from Ambala, Ankush Kumar from Gurdaspur, Rohit Kumar from Bhagpat district in Uttar Pradesh, Anil Kumar from Hamirpur, Akshay Kumar Bura from Chamba and BharatPrakash from Kullu district.
The mobile phones of the missing students could not be located as their phones were switched off.