A day after a tragic accident in Sikkim claimed the lives of 16 Indian Army soldiers, the mortal remains were sent to their homes spread across the country. Sixteen bravehearts lost their lives when an army truck skidded off a steep slope at Gema in North Sikkim on Friday morning. The bodies were airlifted to the Bagdogra airport in north Bengal on Saturday in several choppers and a wreath-laying ceremony was later held at the airport.
The Army said that after the wreath-laying ceremony sounded the last post, 15 bodies were flown by special Air Force aircraft to various airports in the country, from where they would be taken to the towns or villages of the victims. The dead body of Naib Subedar Chandan Kumar Mishra, a resident of Khagaria, Bihar, was taken to his village by road.
“After the bodies reach the native places of the deceased soldiers, the local Army authorities will coordinate handing over the bodies to the family members and cremation with full military honours,” said an Army official.
Wreaths were laid on the mortal remains of the dead soldiers at the Bagdogra air base near Siliguri city in a solemn ceremony soon after the bodies arrived from Libing helipad in East Sikkim shortly after 12.30 pm, an Army official said.
The dead were given a gun salute. He said Sikkim Governor Ganga Prasad, Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang, General Officer Commanding (GOC) Trishakti Corps Lt Gen VPS Kaushik and other officers of the Army and Air Force paid their last respects to the martyred soldiers.
The dead body was brought from the accident site in army vehicles to Sochathang near Gangtok and the post-mortem was conducted before being sent for the ceremony in Gangtok. Senior citizens and police officers were also present at the hospital to pay their last respects to the departed souls.
What happened on that fateful day?
The army statement said that the crashed army truck in which the deceased jawans were traveling was part of a convoy of three vehicles, which was traveling from Chatan to Thangu. It said the vehicle skidded down a steep slope at a sharp turn, killing 16 army personnel, including three junior commissioned officers. A rescue operation was immediately launched and the four injured soldiers were airlifted to Siliguri and are undergoing treatment at a military hospital.
Indian army lost its 16 bravehearts
The deceased soldiers are Naib Subedar Chandan Kumar Mishra and Naib Subedar Omkar Singh of 285 Medical Regiment, L/Havildar Gopinath Makur, Sepoy Sukha Ram, Havildar Charan Singh and Naik Ravinder Singh Thapa of 26 Mechanized Infantry, the Army said. Mishra hailed from Khagaria in Bihar, while Omkar Singh was from Pathankot in Punjab, Makur from Bankura in West Bengal, Ram from Jodhpur in Rajasthan, Charan Singh from Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh and Thapa from Pantnagar in Uttarakhand.
Among the dead were Naik Vaishakh S and Naik Pramod Singh of 221 Field Regiment, while four soldiers of 25 Grenadiers are L/Naik Bhupendra Singh, Naik Shyam Singh Yadav, Naik Lokesh Kumar and Grenadier Vikas Kumar. ,
Vaisakh was from Palakkad in Kerala, Pramod Singh hailed from Ara in Bihar, Bhupendra Singh was from Eta, Yadav was from Unnao, Lokesh Kumar from Muzaffarnagar, all three places in Uttar Pradesh, while Vikas Kumar was a resident of Fatehabad in Haryana.
The army said Subedar Guman Singh and L/Havildar Arvind Singh of 8 Rajasthan Rifles, L/Naik Somveer Singh of 113 Engineer Regiment and L/Naik Manoj Kumar of 1871 Field Regiment were also among the soldiers killed in the accident. Guman Singh was a resident of Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, while Arvind Singh was a resident of Bhiwani, Haryana, Somvir Singh was a resident of Hisar, Haryana and Manoj Kumar was a resident of Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan.
(With inputs from PTI)
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