The Indian Army, in a spine-chilling display of expertise and valour, evacuated 22 CRPF personnel and three civilians from a building under threat of floods along the Madhopur Headworks in Pathankot just seconds before the building collapsed. The daredevil helicopter rescue operation by Indian Army Aviation shows the increasing risk posed by relentless rains and swelling floodwaters in the area.
High-Risk Operation Prevents Catastrophic Disaster
The Indian Army’s Additional Directorate General of Public Information (ADG PI) posted a video of the dramatic rescue on its official X handle, depicting a chopper flying through inclement weather to land on the building. The post said that the team initiated the operation at dawn on Wednesday to evacuate those who had been trapped since Tuesday. “In a macabre flashback to what was riding on, the same building that the helicopter had landed on collapsed soon after the evacuation,” the post stated, highlighting the timing of the operation in fractions of a second. The Army complimented the pilots’ “unrivaled courage” in a mission that “tried nerves, skill and grit.”
Indian Army Aviation undertook a high-risk helicopter rescue operation, evacuating stranded civilians and #CRPF personnel from a building surrounded by raging floodwaters and at imminent risk of collapse at Madhopur Headworks, #Punjab. Braving challenging weather and rapidly… pic.twitter.com/8999qBrs0x
— ADG PI – INDIAN ARMY (@adgpi) August 27, 2025
Floods Cause Destruction Throughout Jammu And Punjab
The accident is a part of a bigger crisis that is being witnessed in north India. Downpours in sections of Jammu have caused extensive waterlogging and flash floods in adjoining Punjab, pushing Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to shut all the state’s schools from August 27 through August 30. The Army has mounted a massive disaster relief and humanitarian assistance operation in flood-hit regions of Jammu and Punjab, deploying rescue columns and helicopters to airlift stranded civilians and BSF troops.
At the same time, another rescue mission is under way along the Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine track near Adhkuwari, where nine devotees lost their lives in a Tuesday landslide and 21 were injured.
ALSO READ |Â The Himalayas Are Crying: Why Jammu’s Schools, Colleges Are Shut As IMD Warns Of Cloudbursts? Check Latest Forecast