At Least 17 people, including nine army personnel and eight porters, are feared killed after avalanches swept away two counter insurgency posts on the Line of Control in Uri and Machil sectors.

Sources said 15 people, including a JCO, six jawans and eight civillian porters, were killed at Rajput Tekri on the LoC in Uri on Wednesday afternoon when an army post got buried under snow. However, the army has confirmed only the death of two jawans in Machil earlier in the day.

“Fifteen armymen, including an officer, and eight laborers went missing soon after an avalanche hit our counter-insurgency post in Uri,” Army spokesman Col Manjinder Singh told The Indian Express.

“A massive search and rescue operation is on way to trace the missing persons.” There were reports that besides the missing persons some more bunkers were still under snow.

Sources said so far the army’s rescue teams have retrieved two bodies near Rajput Tekri.

“We have already released compensation of Rs 50,000 to the families of missing porters,” he said. “We can’t declare them dead as we have not recovered the bodies,” he said, adding that search operations were on.

Col Singh, however, said the bodies of the soldiers killed in Machil sector have been retrieved. The two jawans have been identified as V Jacob and Sudeesh of 7 Garwal Regiment, both residents of Kerala. Seven others in the patrol have been rescued.

The upper reaches of Kashmir have been witnessing heavy rainfall for the last three days. On Monday, the administration had issued warnings about snowstorms and avalanches. “Our men deployed on the LoC and high altitude areas are taking precautions. But the troops still have to patrol the sensitive areas to guard the LoC,” he said.