The Indian Air Force (IAF) yesterday airlifted over 700 people stranded due to the closure of the Jammu-Srinagar national highway following heavy snowfall last week. A defence spokesman said, for the first time, two C-17 Aircraft airlifted 707 passengers simultaneously from the Jammu Air Force Station to Srinagar. The spokesman said, IAF has airlifted around 1,400 people, mostly students, in the past four days.

Our  correspondent reports that Indian Air Force pressed two C-17 Globemaster aircrafts into service between Jammu and Srinagar yesterday and airlifted a total of 707 stranded passengers. The aircrafts carried 301 passengers in first sortie and 406 in second sortie yesterday. Air Commodore, Jammu SK Mishra personally supervised the entire air lifting operation at Jammu airbase. All the passengers were also provided eatables/food packets by the Tiger Division of Army at Satwari, Jammu.

Earlier, as many as 538 persons, including 319 GATE aspirants, were airlifted in separate sorties by the IAF between Jammu and Srinagar.

The relief effort has been undertaken jointly by the IAF and civil administration.