ITBP rescues two trekkers stranded for over 48 hours in Uttarakhand
New Delhi, May 18: Two trekkers from Uttar Pradesh who were stranded for over 48 hours during an expedition in Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand have been rescued by a team of the ITBP, a senior officer said on Wednesday.
Vishal Gangwar (28) and Santosh Kumar (30) started their trek to Khaliya Top in the district on Sunday.
The duo got stranded near Birthi fall in Munsiyari, away from the seven-km-long trekking route, and somehow managed to call for help from their phone, an Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) spokesperson said.
The 14th battalion of the ITBP stationed in the area was alerted by the authorities and two teams were dispatched for the rescue operation, he said.
One of the teams intercepted the climbers on Tuesday night near the Birthi fall area, he said.
The trekkers were dehydrated and hungry and the ITBP teams provided them with food and water, the senior officer said.
"The rescue operation is still on. The rescue team tried to call a helicopter but due to steep gradient, forest and weather hazards, it was not possible to airlift them," he said.
The team is in the process of taking the trekkers to safety through the land route, the spokesperson said.
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Why assume that they came from Pakistan: Chidambaram's remark on Pahalgam attackers sparks political
New Delhi: A political storm has erupted after senior Congress leader and former finance minister P. Chidambaram questioned the Union government’s narrative surrounding the Pahalgam terror attack and the subsequent Operation Sindoor.
In an interview with The Quint, Chidambaram questioned the assumption that the attackers were from Pakistan, arguing that the government has not shared sufficient information to support that claim. He suggested that the assailants could be homegrown, questioning the lack of evidence linking them to Pakistan.
"Have they identified the terrorists? Where they came from? I mean, for all we know, they could be homegrown terrorists. Why do you assume that they came from Pakistan? There's no evidence of that," he had said in the interview.
Highlighting the scattered nature of updates, Chidambaram pointed out that key information was being shared by different officers in various locations, rather than through a comprehensive statement from senior government officials like the Prime Minister or the Defence Minister.
Meanwhile, the saffron party has reacted sharply to his comments, accusing the Congress of undermining national security and echoing Pakistan’s narrative. BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya posted on X, “Once again, the Congress rushes to give a clean chit to Pakistan, this time after the Pahalgam terror attack. Why is it that every time our forces confront Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, Congress leaders sound more like Islamabad's defence lawyers than India's opposition?"
However, Chidambaram referred to the criticism as a "deliberate misinformation campaign" and mentioned that his comments were being misrepresented by selectively muting and clipping portions of his interview. “Trolls are of different kinds and use different tools to spread misinformation. The worst kind is a troll who suppresses the full recorded interview, takes two sentences, mutes some words, and paints the speaker in a black colour!” he wrote on X.
