Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)
Bengaluru, Feb 6: Three out of ten soldiers who were killed in the terrifying avalanche at Siachen glacier, the highest battlefield in the world, three days ago belonged to Karnataka, it has been revealed with some delay. The deceased soldiers were Subedar T T Nagesh from Tejur in Hassan taluk. Lance Naik Hanumanthappa Koppad, a native of Betadoor village in Kundagol taluk, Dharwad district, and C Mahesh from H D Kote in Mysuru district.
Four soldiers from Tamil Nadu, and one each from Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, also died in this unfortunate incident. The families of soldiers are yet to get official intimation of these deaths. Indian Army had announced that nine soldiers and one officer-rank army man had died in this incident, and all of them belonged to Madras regiment. All of them were serving near the Indian border with Pakistan.
The army has launched a huge operation to find out the missing soldiers by deploying special teams for the task from Leh, duly equipping them with modern surveillance and search equipment, and helicopters. In spite of using canine squad in this operation, no positive result could be achieved till Friday evening. Chances of survival of soldiers are remote because of heavy snowfall, and extreme day and night temperature which hover around -25 and -45 degrees.
Mahesh, son of the late Nagaraju from Muslim Block in H D Kote, was serving Indian Army since the last 12 years. He was deployed to Siachen a few months back. He was a bachelor, and had visited family four months back.
Nagesh from Hassan taluk was in the army since the last two decades. His brother-in-law,Annappa said that Nagesh had been posted to the northern glacier of Leh segment on Wednesday. Nagesh is survived by wife and two children.
Hanumanthappa Koppad was serving the army since the last 24 years. He had married a lady named Jayamma just two years back, and has left behind an 18-month-old daughter.