Army rescues 5 mountaineers near Siachen glacier

Army rescues 5 mountaineers near Siachen glacier
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

NEW DELHI, AUG 29: One member of the Indo-French mountaineering expedition was killed in the Siachen glacier when he slipped into the fast flowing Shyok river. The other five members immediately raised an alarm but were trapped and almost pulled into the swirling icy waters. Following the alarm, troops of the Ladakh Scouts stationed in the southern glacier immediately launched an operation and rescued all six members.

Giving details, Army spokesman Colonel Shruti Kant said that six-member team had successfully scaled the Rimo IV peak in the Siachen glacier yesterday. ``They were on their way back to base camp, trying to cross the Shyok river when they slipped into the fast-flowing currents of the icy river. Major B.S. Shahi and Captain V.S.S. Murthy, the medical officer, immediately launched a rescue mission along with the sturdy Ladakh Scouts,'' he said.

The Army rescue team succeeded in rescuing five members of the team alive and then launched an operation to recover the body of the sixth -- Kavian Mistry -- from the river, he added.

Based on information provided by the Trishul Division, the spokesman said that the body of the fourth soldier missing since August last in the adjacent Turtuk sector had also been recovered. The soldier -- Havildar Net Ram of the 3rd Battalion of Rajput Regiment -- was a part of a six-member patrol that had gone missing and feared dead in jockeying for heights immediately after last year's Kargil conflict.