Bodies of nine soldiers recovered in Siachen, says army

Jammu, Feb 9: The army on Tuesday said the bodies of nine soldiers, including a junior commissioned officer, who were buried alive under an avalanche on the Siachen glacier have been recovered. The 10 armymen were swept under the avalanche which hit their patrol at 20,500 feet altitude on the southern side of the Siachen glacier in Jammu and Kashmir’s Ladakh region on February 3. “The search and rescue operation launched in Siachen to locate and retrieve the bodies of soldiers buried under more than 30 feet of snow and ice after the avalanche has been completed,” Colonel S.D. Goswami, spokesman of the army’s Udhampur-headquartered Northern Command, told IANS here. “It is to the credit of the dogged determition of the rescue teams which worked under extreme conditions to extricate Lance ik Hanumanthappa Koppada alive from under more than 30 feet of snow,” he said. “It is with deep regret that we wish to confirm that mortal remains of the remaining nine martyrs, including a JCO, were also retrieved by the rescue teams,” the spokesman said. “The mortal remains, after due formalities, will be flown to their hometowns as soon as possible,” he added. (IANS)