Click to play videoBanihal, Kashmir: Fourteen-year-old Zainab and 40 of her relatives are currently putting up in a government school building in Hiller Shahabad. They were rescued by the police, Army and locals from a hilly hamlet near Pir Panjal after it was buried by a snowstorm early on Friday.
"At 4 O'clock in the night, the storm came. My uncle died. My father lost his leg and my sister lost her hand," Zainab recalls the horror.
Hundreds of policemen and locals scaled the Gulab Bagh hills to save the family from the mud houses hidden under the snow.
"The windows and doors of the house were blocked, it was completely buried in snow. Many people were trapped inside. The house was damaged when an avalanche hit. One person died in the incident. We broke the doors and windows to rescue the rest of the family," Qazigund SHO Bashid Ahmed said.
For seven hours, the family, comprising several children and elders, was under the snow before a team of Army and police rescued them. But little do they realise that one of their elders is no more. It's a tragedy that unfolds in Kashmir every winter.
Over the last five days, heavy snowfall has paralyzed normal life in Kashmir.
The government has already declared a state of emergency in the state. As many as 22 people have shivered to death over the last five days alone.
Fourteen of those deaths occurred over the last 24 hours. There's been extensive damage to property and livestock.
Power and water supplies have been disrupted while roadlinks, including the Jammu-Srinagar highway, have been blocked.
"About five people are reported to have died because of the snowstorm. Some of them have been injured. As far as road communication is concerned, you must have seen how the snow-cutters and the people are doing their job all day," Kashmir Divisional Commissioner Mehboob Iqbal said.
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