Siachen tragedy: Mortal remains of remaining 8 soldiers recovered

The mortal remains of the eight remaining soldiers who were buried under the Siachen Glacier were recovered by the Indian Army. Mukhtar Ahmad/ Rediff.com reports from Srinagar.

The army confirmed the recovery of the mortal remains of all nine soldiers buried under Siachen Glacier avalanche debris on Tuesday evening.

The search teams of the army had on Monday rescued one of the soldiers.

“The rescue operations which were launched at Siachen to locate and retrieve the ten soldiers buried under more than thirty feet of snow and ice after an avalanche stuck their post in the early hours of  February 3 is in progress,” defence spokesman S D Goswami said.

“It is to the credit and dogged determination of the rescue teams which were working under extreme conditions that they have managed to extricate Lance Naik Hanamanthappa Koppad alive from under more than thirty feet of snow,” he said.

“Lance Naik Hanamanthappa Koppad has exhibited a super-human feat by surviving for six days buried under snow.”

The spokesman said that he has been evacuated by air to Army Research and Referral Hospital, Delhi for expert medical care. 

One junior commissioned officer and nine soldiers were trapped after an avalanche struck their post in the Siachen Glacier on February 3.

“It is with deep regret that we wish to confirm that mortal remains of balance of nine martyrs including a Junior Commissioned Officer were also retrieved by the rescue teams.”

The spokesman said 'the mortal remains, after due formalities, will be flown to their home towns as soon as possible'.

The details of the martyrs are as follows:                 

1) Subedar Nagesha TT r/o vill Tejur, Hassan Dist, Karnataka

2) Havildar Elumalai M r/o vill Dukkam Parai, Vellore Dist, Tamil Nadu

3) Lance Havildar S Kumar r/o vill Kumanan Thozhu, Teni Dist, Tamil Nadu

4) Lance Naik Sudheesh B r/o vill Monroethuruth, Kollam Dist, Kerala

5) Sepoy Mahesha PN r/o vill HD Kote, Mysore Dist, Karnataka

6) Sepoy Ganesan G r/o village Chokkathevan Patti, Madurai Dist, Tamil Nadu

7) Sepoy Rama Moorthy N r/o vill  Gudisatana Palli , Krishna Giri Dist, Tamil Nadu

8) Sep Mustaq Ahmed S r/o vill Parnapalle,  Kurnool Dist, Andhra Pradesh

9) Sepoy Nursing Assistant Suryawanshi SV r/o village Maskarwadi, Satara Dist, Maharashtra