The brave Indian Army paid heartfelt tributes on Saturday to the seven troops who died earlier this week in Arunachal Pradesh after being caught in an avalanche. A wreath-laying ceremony placed on Saturday at Tezpur Air Force Station (Assam), where General Officer Commanding, Gajraj Corps, Lt Gen Ravin Khosla and other military authorities paid their tributes to the bravehearts, according to defence spokesperson Lt Col Harsh Wardhan Pande.
Wreaths were laid on the graves of Havildar Jugal Kishore, Rifleman Arun Kattal, Rifleman Akshay Pathania, Rifleman Vishal Sharma, Rifleman Rakesh Singh, Rifleman Ankesh Bhardwaj, and Garner (TA) Gurbaj Singh, all of whom died in the line of duty.
After the wreath-laying ceremony, the soldiers' lifeless remains were transferred to their native regions in the states of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, and the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir: Akhnoor, Kathua, Dharkalan, Bajinath, Kangra, Ghamarwin, and Batala.
The Bravehearts were part of a patrol squad that was hit by an avalanche on February 6 in the high altitude area of Kameng sector in Arunachal Pradesh, according to Pande. Search and rescue operations were launched immediately, including airlifting of specialised teams.
The rescue teams recovered their dead brothers in severe weather conditions, exhibiting the highest level of camaraderie and esprit-de-corps, in a region with dangerous terrain and high peaks at an altitude of 14,500 feet, according to a defence spokesman.
He claimed that heavy snowfall and severe weather had been pouring in the region of the event for the last several days, making rescue operations more difficult for the specialised teams tasked with finding and recovering the slain soldiers.
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