Arunachal Avalanche: After the ceremony, the bodies were sent to their native places

Sonitpur: A wreath-laying ceremony was held at Tezpur Air Force Station in Assam on Saturday to pay homage to the seven Army personnel who were hit by an avalanche in a high-altitude area of the Kameng sector in Arunachal Pradesh.

"Wreath laying ceremony of Hav Jugal Kishore, Rfn Arun Kattal, Rfn Akshay Pathania, Rfn Vishal Sharma, Rfn Rakesh Singh, Rfn Ankesh Bhardwaj and Gnr (TA) Gurbaj Singh of Indian Army who made supreme sacrifice in the line of duty took place at Tezpur Air Force Station," said Indian Army.

General Officer Commanding, Gajraj Corps Lt Gen Ravin Khosla, and other military officials paid last respects to the bravehearts.

After the ceremony, the bodies were sent to Akhnoor, Kathua, Dharkalan, Khour, Bajinath, Kangra, Ghamarwin, and Batala; the native places of the personnel in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu and Kashmir.

"The Bravehearts were part of a patrol which was struck by an avalanche in the High Altitude Area of Kameng Sector in Arunachal Pradesh on February 6, 2022," said Indian Army.

Search and rescue operations were launched immediately including airlifting of specialised teams. The rescue teams, displaying the highest degree of camaraderie and esprit-de-corps, recovered the bodies of the soldiers under hostile weather conditions in an area located at an altitude of 14500 feet which has treacherous terrain and high peaks.

The area of incident was witnessing heavy snowfall and inclement weather since last few days which made the rescue operations more challenging for the specialised teams tasked to locate and recover the soldiers.