Bodies of Siachen victims likely to be brought to Delhi today

The mortal remains of nine soldiers, who died in Siachen last week after being hit by a monstrous avalanche are likely to be brought to Delhi on Monday and subsequently be sent to their home states.

The men from 19 Madras Regiment were the mates of Lance Naik Kodappa Hanumanthappa, who was miraculously extracted alive by the Army after spending six days under tonnes of ice but died a few days later in a hospital in Delhi.

The bodies of the nine soldiers could not be flown out of Siachen so far due to continuing adverse weather. Finally the coffins were transported from the Siachen glacier to the Siachen Base Camp on Saturday.

“Weather on Khardungla remains extremely poor. All attempts to bring mortal remains of the Siachen brave hearts to Leh are being made. Weather permitting, the mortal remains are expected to reach Delhi not before Monday,” said Col S D Goswami, spokesperson from Udhampur-based northern command of the Army.

Plan to further move the bodies to six different destinations – Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Madurai and Thiruvananthapuram – are in place. Before the departure, Army Chief Gen Dalbir Singh would place a wreath on their coffins to pay tribute and final respect to them.

The two men from Karnataka among the nine dead are Subedar Nagesha T T from Hassan district and Sepoy Mahesha P N from Mysore. Nagesh was the leader of the team that was guarding the the world’s highest Sonam helipad at 19,600 ft when the avalanche hit their post on February 3.