Airforce to complete rescue operation around Amarnath cave area in 2-3 days: Air Commodore Pankaj Mittal

Jammu and Kashmir: Major rescue operation completed at holy cave:112 sorties were carried 123 injured and 7 dead bodies were bought from the cave despite unfavourable weather conditions, according to IAF Commodore Pankaj Mittal. Airforce has always played a vital role in all operations wherever it came to the matter of safety and rescue of common people, he said 

Repeating its past, a major rescue operation was carried out by IAF at Amarnath holy cave, and the operation is likely to be completed in the next 02-03 more days, said Pankaj Mittal, Air Commodore, Airforce Station, Srinagar.

Giving details of the rescue mission conducted by IAF, Air Commodore Pankaj Mittal said that 04 MI-17, 04 Cheetah, and other ALH helicopters were used during the rescue operations.

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He said Indian IAF carried out a total of 112 missions so far during the rescue operation at the holy Amarnath cave and rescued 123 people near the holy cave and Panjtarni area. He further said that 29 tons of load which include equipment, NDRF rescue teams, engineers, dog squad, etc were flown to the holy cave area during this operation.

The holy Amarnath valley being very narrow with limited aerospace was tough for the massive-scale rescue mission but IAF managed all the things and conducted the rescue mission successfully. The Air Commodore said it was a joint operation carried out by various agencies including the army, police, paramilitary forces, NDRF, and civil administration.

Mittal said that the initial operation was very challenging, adding "the weather was a major hurdle because of which we couldn't start operations on the 8th July evening when the major tragedy took place. The operation was started on the 9th morning and despite the weather challenges we managed to operate and conduct the rescue operations.