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From melting snow, emerges the story of another missing soldier: The Indian Express
Base Camp, Dhaka Glacier, Aug 14: It`s tough going at 16,500 feet. The air`s too thin, the body movements laboriously sluggish. But all that`s temporarily forgotten, everyone too busy staring at a picture emerging from the snows: there`s new evidence to show what happened to 98 men and their flying machine 35 years ago.
Base Camp, Dhaka Glacier, Aug 14: It’s tough going at 16,500 feet. The air’s too thin, the body movements laboriously sluggish. But all that’s temporarily forgotten, everyone too busy staring at a picture emerging from the snows: there’s new evidence to show what happened to 98 men and their flying machine 35 years ago.
Mountaineering instructors from the Manali institute, the first to stumble upon the remains of a soldier who was on board an IAF An-12 which simply disappeared on February 7, 1968, have returned from Dhaka glacier with more tell-tale signs: the personal belongings of Lance Naik Kamal Singh Bhandari.
The soldier’s books and documents remained intact inside his bedroll for 35 years. An annual statement of accounts for 1965-66 has his name and the number 6871119. When The Indian Express looked up the flight manifest, the details tallied.
There’s also a notebook with an address: Village Dalsigli, P.O. Basukedar, District Chamoli (Garhwal). From the Army Ordnance Corps, the Lance Naik’s papers suggest he was part of the 37 Ammunition Depot, Bharatpur.
He was apparently carrying with him an order issued by Capt P D Sharma of the depot. In the list of soldiers who had cleared their promotion tests held in August ’67, Bhandari too figured. He had cleared the Army Second Class Certificate Exam. They have also found a geography text book and copious notes on basic mathematics and science.
The documents, still with the Mountaineering Institute, are yet to be handed over to the Army. ‘‘We have not even seen them properly. As you can see, they are still wet. We will wait for them to dry, ascertain the importance and decide accordingly,’’ says institute director Col (retd) H S Chauhan.
At the base camp, the Army and IAF search and recovery teams are planning their next move. The IAF team, led by Wing Commander Amit Chaudhari, has completed two reconnaissance rounds and now plans to go out and collect aircraft parts strewn on the glacier.
‘‘From what we can see, the plane apparently crashed into the peak CB 13 and then fell on to the glacier. But we have not found a flight data recorder or any concrete evidence to support this,’’ says Chaudhari.
The Army effort’s being led by the Dogra Scouts. Part of the operation will involve extricating Sepoy Beli Ram’s body from the site. Officials say they have also found several body parts.
‘‘We can’t say whether these parts are of one particular individual. We will send it in a separate body bag for experts to check,’’ says Maj K Salil Kumar. Army officials say they will not bring back Beli Ram’s mortal remains until it’s properly embalmed.
The soldier’s books and documents remained intact inside his bedroll for 35 years. An annual statement of accounts for 1965-66 has his name and the number 6871119. When The Indian Express looked up the flight manifest, the details tallied.
There’s also a notebook with an address: Village Dalsigli, P.O. Basukedar, District Chamoli (Garhwal). From the Army Ordnance Corps, the Lance Naik’s papers suggest he was part of the 37 Ammunition Depot, Bharatpur.
He was apparently carrying with him an order issued by Capt P D Sharma of the depot. In the list of soldiers who had cleared their promotion tests held in August ’67, Bhandari too figured. He had cleared the Army Second Class Certificate Exam. They have also found a geography text book and copious notes on basic mathematics and science.
The documents, still with the Mountaineering Institute, are yet to be handed over to the Army. ‘‘We have not even seen them properly. As you can see, they are still wet. We will wait for them to dry, ascertain the importance and decide accordingly,’’ says institute director Col (retd) H S Chauhan.
At the base camp, the Army and IAF search and recovery teams are planning their next move. The IAF team, led by Wing Commander Amit Chaudhari, has completed two reconnaissance rounds and now plans to go out and collect aircraft parts strewn on the glacier.
‘‘From what we can see, the plane apparently crashed into the peak CB 13 and then fell on to the glacier. But we have not found a flight data recorder or any concrete evidence to support this,’’ says Chaudhari.
The Army effort’s being led by the Dogra Scouts. Part of the operation will involve extricating Sepoy Beli Ram’s body from the site. Officials say they have also found several body parts.
‘‘We can’t say whether these parts are of one particular individual. We will send it in a separate body bag for experts to check,’’ says Maj K Salil Kumar. Army officials say they will not bring back Beli Ram’s mortal remains until it’s properly embalmed.