2 more deaths in Galwan: Soldiers building bridge drown in river accidents

The families of the two soldiers said they were told that the two men were part of a team involved in “constructing a bridge” in the area.

Army convoy moves on the Srinagar- Ladakh highway at Ganderbal district

Two soldiers, Naik Sachin Vikram More (37) from Malegaon and Lance Naik Saleem Khan (23) from Patiala, died after drowning in a river in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley area. Their last rites were held on Saturday.

While there was no official statement from the Army, sources said “these are accidents and not connected to the current situation in the region”.

The families of the two soldiers said they were told that the two men were part of a team involved in “constructing a bridge” in the area. While defence sources said More’s death was “reported on Thursday”, Khan’s family said they were informed that he died on Friday.

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“We have been told that a bridge was being constructed, and Saleem was part of that team,” said Khan’s uncle, Budhdin Khan. “He was in a boat which overturned, and he died,” he said.

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More’s family said they were told that he dived into the river to rescue two other soldiers. While he managed to rescue them, More was seriously injured when he hit his head on a submerged rock. He is survived by his parents, wife and three children, including an infant.

His father, Vikram More, said he last spoke to him 10 days ago. “Sachin had told me that the situation in the Galwan Valley was serious. He assured me he was fine and said I shouldn’t worry,” he said.

Khan’s mother, Nasima Begum, said she last spoke to him two days back. “He said he would come home soon. He never gave details of the situation there… He said there may be a problem with phone connectivity, and I shouldn’t worry if he didn’t call. I have lost everything. He was our only support,” she said.

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Khan, who joined the Army in 2014, is survived by his mother and two siblings.

Divya Goyal

Divya Goyal is a Principal Correspondent with The Indian Express, based in Punjab. Her interest lies in exploring both news and feature stories, with an effort to reflect human interest at the heart of each piece. She writes on gender issues, education, politics, Sikh diaspora, heritage, the Partition among other subjects. She has also extensively covered issues of minority communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She also explores the legacy of India's partition and distinct stories from both West and East Punjab. She is a gold medalist from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Delhi, the most revered government institute for media studies in India, from where she pursued English Journalism (Print). Her research work on “Role of micro-blogging platform Twitter in content generation in newspapers” had won accolades at IIMC. She had started her career in print journalism with Hindustan Times before switching to The Indian Express in 2012. Her investigative report in 2019 on gender disparity while treating women drug addicts in Punjab won her the Laadli Media Award for Gender Sensitivity in 2020. She won another Laadli for her ground report on the struggle of two girls who ride a boat to reach their school in the border village of Punjab. ... Read More

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