Amid nature’s fury, 40 people who were trapped under the snow for hours were fortunate enough to survive, thanks to a phone call made by one of them. These people got trapped after seven houses got buried under an avalanche at Hillad village in south Kashmir in the wee hours of Friday. The only mobile phone is owned by 40-year-old Mohammed Yaqoob Cheechi who escaped unhurt and came out from the trapped house after struggling for two hours. In the past, Cheechi had been often teased for possessing a mobile phone, considered a luxury by the villagers. But, today, when 40 lives were saved, everyone was all praise for Cheechi and his phone.Cheechi said that once he was out of the debris, he started looking for his phone. “Realising the gravity of the situation, I went inside the house again and located my phone,” he said. Amazingly, the phone was still working. “From every side, people were crying for help. I made a call to my friend, Farooq Gania, who lives in village Pranav, six km down our village. After an hour, the police called on my number and finally, we were rescued.”Meanwhile, at least 18 people died when an avalanche hit a cluster of houses near Jammu-Srinagar National Highway on Friday. The highway remained blocked for the sixth consecutive day in the wake of the snow avalanche. Forty-six people were rescued by the security forces on Friday. So far, avalanches have forced hundreds to leave their snowbound villages in the state. The higher reaches of Rajouri received eight to 10 feet of snowfall since Thursday night. Deputy Commissioner of Rajouri, Mohammad Rafiq Sheikh, said, “The Rajouri-Poonch state highway remained blocked for the second day and traffic was badly hit in Bimber Gali, Sunderbani and Mendhar in Poonch. Added Deputy Commissioner of Kishtwar, Shahid Inayatullah, “Far-flung areas like Wadwan, Padder and Marwah received 10 to 12 feet of the snowfall and Kishtwar town received six feet of snowfall.”
