Operation to Recover Bodies of Soldiers Continue at Siachen

More equipment pressed into service for recovering bodies of 10 Madras Regiment soldiers trapped under snow after avalanche.

Operations by the specialized teams of the Army and the Air Force in progress to rescue the soldiers hit by an avalanche in Siachen on Thursday. Ten soldiers of an Army Post located were hit by a massive avalanche in the early hours of Wednesday. | PTI

SRINAGAR: The Army rushed more equipment to Siachen to recover the bodies of 10 soldiers who were buried under snow after a massive avalanche hit their post three days ago and released their names on Friday.

“More specialised equipment has been rushed to Siachen to recover the bodies of the soldiers buried under heavy snow,” a defence source said, adding that the equipment had been pressed into service to recover the bodies. Sources said the sophisticated equipment included heavy snow cutters.

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A Junior Commissioned Officer and nine soldiers belonging to the Madras Regiment manning a post located at an altitude of 19,600 feet in the Northern Glacier sector in Ladakh were buried under snow after the post was hit by a massive avalanche in the early hours of February 3.

The Army’s Northern Command spokesman Colonel S D Goswami told Express that the rescue operation was going on.

“The operation will continue till the bodies of the soldiers are recovered,” he said, adding all-out efforts were going on to rescue the trapped soldiers. Colonel Goswami released the names of the soldiers buried under snow.

He said nine of the 10 soldiers hail from south India — four from Tamil Nadu, three from Karnataka, one each from Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.

The soldiers have been identified as  Subedar Nagesha T T, Tejur, Hassan district, Karnataka; Havildar Elumalai Dukkam Parai, Vellore district, Tamil Nadu; Lance Havildar S Kumar, Kumanan Thozhu, Teni district, Tamil Nadu;  Lance Naik Sudheesh B, Monroethuruth, Kollam district, Kerala; Lance Naik Hanamanthappa Koppad, Betadur, Dharwad district,  Karnataka;  Sepoy Mahesha P N, H D Kote, Mysore district, Karnataka; Sepoy Ganesan G, Chokkathevan Patti, Madurai district, Tamil  Nadu; Sepoy Rama Moorthy N, Gudisatana Palli, Krishna Giri district, Tamil Nadu; Sepoy Mustaq Ahmed S, Parnapalle, Kurnool district, Andhra Pradesh and Sepoy Nursing Assistant Suryawanshi S V, Maskarwadi, Satara  district,  Maharashtra.

The February 3 avalanche was the second one to hit the soldiers in Siachen, the world’s highest battlefield, this year.

On January 3, four Armymen of 3 Ladakh Scouts were killed after their patrol party was hit by an avalanche.

A Captain was killed and 15 Armymen were rescued when an avalanche had hit an Army post on  November 15, 2015.

And in April last year, four soldiers were killed after an avalanche struck the Chang La area.