A young Kashmiri soldier and his relatives were forced to traverse through six-feet snow in an avalanche-prone area for over 10 hours with his mother's body since authorities did not provide a helicopter as promised earlier. The soldier wanted to bury his mother's body at her native place near Pathankot. He was taking the body from Kupwara, Kashmir.
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Mohammed Abbas, 25, lived in Pathankot with his mother, Sakeena Begum, who died six days ago. He wanted to bury her body in their village in Kashmir, but the village had become inaccessible for vehicles after heavy snowfall and avalanche.
Abbas had returned to Kashmir, where authorities assured him of an helicopter to reach Karnah. However, after waiting for four days, the helicopter was not provided, when he decided to take matters into his own hands. He and his relatives then trekked for 50 km as the road connecting Kupwara and Karnah was covered in snow.
Villagers also helped remove layers of snow so that the group could pass by with the makeshift gurney for his mother.
"It is very humiliating. I'm not able to give a decent burial to my mother. The administration kept us waiting with the body, but they never sent the helicopter," he told NDTV. "It was a dangerous trek. We were stomping through snow with my mother's body. It's an avalanche-prone zone that we were moving through."
He reached the location on Thursday evening and performed last rites. Hundreds of villagers attended the last rites.
Officials denied the fact that no helicopter was provided to them.
"We had arranged a chopper, but the family refused the facility because they were not sure about the weather and whether the helicopter could take off," said a senior officer on condition of anonymity.
"We waited for four days hoping for some government help. This morning, officials in Kupwara refused to take our calls," Abbas said.
Ghulam Mohammad Dar, the Deputy Commissioner of Kupwara, said the highway would be cleared by Friday evening and re-opened for traffic on Saturday morning.
