37 yrs after crash, Army team finds remains of soldier

Felicitating the expedition team today, the division’s GOC, Major General B Shivshankar, said: ‘‘In keeping with the high traditions of the Army, the team has come back successfully. There is no casualty and the members have brought parts of the wreckage buried in heavy snow. I am proud of them.’’

Team leader Major Naresh Sood told The Indian Express: ‘‘The toughest part was bringing down the wreckage from 18,000 feet without any casualty. That too, in extremely tough weather conditions. The wreckage was under layers of snow and an aerial survey did not reveal anything. We had to use explosives to retrieve the wreckage. The first thing to be found was the soldier’s limb.’’

About the uniforms found, Sood said, ‘‘We were hoping to find some bodies also, but were not so lucky. Two shirts of a havildar and a sepoy were found 35 feet deep in the snow. We thought one of them was a body, but it was actually the uniform with snow inside.’’

Though Operation Punar Uthan-II was the second expedition of the Army, launched after a body of a soldier was found by some civilians in 2003, it is the first to ‘‘return successfully’’.