CHITRAL: The radar-based search by army engineers to trace missing students buried under snow avalanche in Susoom village here failed to yield any result on Friday.

Nine students of Parsan village had been buried by the snow avalanche on Saturday when they were going back to their village after appearing in matriculation examinations.

The bodies of two students were recovered next day while hectic efforts are afoot to recover rest of them.

District council member from Karimabad Mohammad Yaqub told Dawn by telephone that excavation of snow avalanche at two points was carried out based on the indication of the radio waves-based apparatus but without any success as none of the bodies were found there.

He said three dewatering machines had been provided by the district administration to suck away the water caused by melting of snow due to its excavation and to reduce the risk of drifting down of large mass of snow. He said light machinery was also used for the first time to remove the snow from the site.

Mr Yaqub said the special team of army engineers with radar system was sent by General Officer Commanding of Swat division, Maj-Gen Nadir Khan, who had visited the village two days ago.

More than 100 personnel of Chitral Scouts, police, Levies, NDMA and local volunteers are taking part in the search operation on daily basis.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2016