Haldwani (Uttarakhand): The mortal remains of the soldier who died in an avalanche that struck the Siachen glacier about 38 years ago, could not be airlifted on Tuesday from Ladakh due to inclement weather conditions. Heavy rainfall in the region has made the task of airlifting the mortal remains of the martyred soldier Lance Naik (Late) Chandrashekhar, belonging to Kumaon Regiment, difficult. The soldier had laid down his life defending the country during Operation Meghdoot.
The mortal remains of the martyred jawan are expected to arrive at his native place on Wednesday. Preparations are afoot at Haldwani to receive the mortal remains of the soldier. Tricolours have been installed on both sides of the road leading up to Chandrasekhar's house. The security near the martyr's house has been beefed up. Chief Minister Puskhar Singh Dhami is expected to visit the martyr's house to pay his respects.
Read:Indian Army finds remains of soldier 38 years after he went missing in Siachen
Haldwani SDM Manish Kumar said the mortal remains of the martyred soldier have been kept at Army headquarters at Leh. A helicopter is unable to fly the sortie due to the inclement weather condition in Ladakh. Hence, his mortal remains will arrive at his native place at Haldwani by Wednesday.
Indian Army managed to recover the mortal remains of the soldier 38 years after he had gone missing in Siachen in an avalanche back in 1984. "Lance Naik (Late) Chandrashekhar who was missing since 29 May 1984 while deployed at Glacier due to an Avalanche," Northern Command, Indian Army said on Monday.
"Late Lance Naik Chandrashekhar was identified with the help of the identification disk bearing his Army number which was entangled along with the mortal remains; further details were recovered from official Army records," the Northern Command added in the statement.
Badri Dutt Upadhyay, who was a companion of Martyr Chandrashekhar during Operation Meghdoot, shared his experience and said "Operation Meghdoot was launched by the Indian Armed Forces to take control of Siachen Glacier on the morning of April 13, 1984, pre-empting Pakistan’s designs to capture it."
"That time bodies of 12 of the 20 soldiers were recovered during a search operation, while the remains of the rest, including Lance Naik Chandrashekhar Singh, were never found.", Upadhyay added.
Lance Naik Chandrashekhar’s wife Shanti Devi, originally from Almora, currently lives in Haldwani’s Saraswati Vihar Colony. At that time, she was 28 and the two had been married for 9 years. Their elder daughter at the time was four and the younger one was one-and-a-half years old. The martyr's wife said she was proud of her husband's sacrifice but the only grief she had was that she was not able to have a glimpse of his husband for the last time.
