ISLAMABAD, May 29: All the 139 people, 124 of them soldiers, buried in snow when they were hit by an avalanche in Gayari sector of Siachen over 50 days ago have been declared martyrs.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement that the nature and magnitude of the calamity suggested that there was no probability of recovering any person alive.

Against this backdrop, the statement said, prominent religious leaders of all sects and factions had been consulted and aspects related to socio-religious dimensions, implications, requirements to initiate the process of documentation and reduction of the sufferings of the bereaved families had been evaluated in detail.

“From this deliberate exercise, it has been decided to declare the remaining brave soldiers as ‘shuhada’. This is being done with mixed feelings of pride, grief and above all unflinching resolve to continue all-out efforts to recover the bodies of all shuhada,” the statement said.

It said that notwithstanding the resolve of troops employed on search operations, excavation work was taking time because of constraints imposed by terrain and weather.

Through their untiring efforts, three bodies have been recovered.

The soldiers were buried under 80 feet of snow on the Siachen Glacier after the avalanche crashed down on the battalion headquarters in the Gayari sector.

The massive avalanche which hit before dawn was 1,000 metres long and 25 metres wide.

The Siachen Glacier in the Karakoram Range is the world’s highest battleground where Pakistani and Indian soldiers have been facing each other since 1984.

The terrain is extremely inhospitable and temperatures can plunge as low as minus 150 degrees C. More soldiers die from cold and bad weather, blizzards and icy winds than in fighting.

Chief of the Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who visited the site to supervise the rescue effort, had directed local commanders to utilise all available resources and leave no stone unturned to find those buried under the snow.

Meanwhile, Naik Mujahid Shah died and two soldiers, Zahid and Taimoor, were injured when they were hit by an avalanche in the Piun sector near Skardu on Tuesday.