Indian Air Force and Army Aviation Choppers have airlifted 108 BSF and Army men from forward Border Out Posts (BoPs) as floods have badly hit security infrastructure along Indo-Pak border.
“A total of 108 BSF and Army jawans were evacuated from various marooned BoPs and forward posts along Indo-Pak border in Jammu sector today,” a senior Army official said on Saturday.
Floods have inundated most the stretches of border fencing and trapped BSF jawans in BoPs and also Army jawans in forward posts along Indo-Pak border in Jammu and Samba sectors.
Apart from this, IAF choppers of Condors have evacuated 564 people by braving adverse weather conditions and poor visibility in flood-hit areas of Jammu, PRO, Defence, Jammu, Lt Col Maneesh Mehta said.
Continuing with its yeomen service the Condors of Jammu Air Force Station under Air Commodore PE Patange on September 4 were alerted by the Civil administration for the flood-relief operations in the Jammu sector, he said.
The Air Force was fully ready to undertake the operations immediately, he said, adding that, the actual reports and the specific details of the locations started arriving at about 0600 hours on Friday.
Despite continuous rain and inclement weather, the first aircraft got airborne at 0649 hours and the rescue operations continued throughout the day in extremely challenging conditions pushing both the aircrew and the aircraft to extreme limits, Lt Col Mehta said.
He said a total of 108 people were rescued from marooned locations and brought to safety yesterday.
“Although the weather did not relent the operations were further intensified,” he said.
On Saturday, two ALH of the Army Aviation were attached to the Air Force under the command of the Air Officer Commanding, Air Force Station Jammu to aid with the relief work, he said.
A total of 16 sorties were flown by the Air Force MI 17 IV aircraft by Wing Commander Anup Sharma, Squadron Leader C.P. Savathi, Squadron Leader A. Sangwan, Squadron Leader Khanduri and Squadron Leader Shailesh Singh rescuing 456 civilians, Lt Col Mehta said.
Operation Rahat II was meticulously planned flawlessly executed under the most challenging environment. The response of the Air Force in the short reaction time speaks volumes about the professionalism and ability to operate under the most testing of conditions.
