SOLDIER’S BODY FOUND IN HP GLACIER
Mountaineers on a cleanup drive in Himachal’s Lahaul and Spiti district stumbled upon the remains of a soldier along with some wreckage of an Indian Air Force plane that had disappeared with 102 army personnel on board 50 years ago.
SHIMLA : Mountaineers on a clean-up drive in Himachal Pradesh’s Lahaul and Spiti district stumbled upon the remains of a soldier along with some wreckage of an Indian Air Force plane that had disappeared with 102 army personnel on board 50 years ago, an official said on Saturday.
The Russian-manufactured Antonov (AN)-12 aircraft was carrying troops and supplies from Chandigarh to Leh when it had gone missing in the icy terrain on February 7,1968. The missing plane has remained one of the biggest mysteries in the Indian military aviation history. Remains of only four soldiers had been recovered so far, the last during an expedition in 2007.
Now, a team of 11 climbers who were on a Swachh Bharat Pakhwada drive discovered the body of a soldier along with the wreckage on the 6,200-metrehigh Chandrabhaga peak on the Dhaka glacier overlooking the Lahaul valley.
“Our team members spotted a hand protruding from the ice. On approaching it, we found a corpse that was intact. I could also figure some burn marks on the body,” said Rajeev Rawat, who was leading the cleanup drive launched jointly by the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation of India (ONGC) and Indian Mountaineering Federation.
The body was in army fatigues and had an identification nameplate lying close to it. Following this, the team alerted the army on July 16.
“I contacted an army official at the mountaineering institute, who further informed the army’s high altitude warfare school,” said Rawat, who is an instructor at the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering in Uttarkashi in Uttarakhand.
The army and air force are reported to have launched a joint operation to recce the area.
Some climbers confirmed that army’s Cheetah helicopters have been seen flying over the Chandrabhaga peak.
However, the civil administration in Lahaul-spiti had no information about the development. “We are learning about it from the media,” said officiating deputy commissioner AS Negi.