NEW DELHI: In what is nothing short of a miracle, one of the 10 soldiers buried in the avalanche at the Sonam post in the Siachen glacier last Wednesday was found alive in the rescue operations at the 19,600-feet altitude on Monday.
In the rescue operations, Lance Naik Hanamanthappa Koppad (resident of Betadur, Dharwad district of Karnataka) has been found alive. All the other soldiers regrettably are no more with us," said Northern Army Command chief Lt-General D S Hooda late on Monday night.
"The medical condition of L/N Hanamanthappa is critical but all attempts are being made to evacuate him to the Army Research & Referral Hospital (in New Delhi) on Tuesday morning. We hope the miracle continues. Pray with us," he added.
The soldier, with a faint pulse, was found under 25-feet of snow and was rushed to a "warm tent" in the location to stabilise him with the help of doctors. When possible, he will be flown out of the glacial heights.
The Army had earlier virtually given up hope of rescuing alive any of the 10 soldiers whose post in the Northern Siachen Glacier was buried deep under tonnes of crystalised snow when the ice-wall, measuring almost a km wide and 800-m-tall, had collapsed on the post and the adjoining helipad early on Wednesday.
But specialised Army teams, backed by sniffer dogs, ice-cutters, drilling machines and other heavy equipment, had continued with their major search-and-rescue operation braving the harsh weather and terrain.
Apart from Hanamanthappa, the other ill-fated soldiers from the 19 Madras regiment had been identified as: Subedar Nagesha TT (village Tejur, Hassan Dist, Karnataka), Havildar Elumalai M (Dukkam Parai, Vellore Dist, Tamil Nadu), Lance Havildar S Kumar (Kumanan Thozhu, Teni Dist, Tamil Nadu), Lance Naik Sudheesh B (Monroethuruth, Kollam Dist, Kerala), Sepoy Mahesha PN (HD Kote, Mysore Dist, Karnataka), Sepoy Ganesan G (Chokkathevan Patti, Madurai Dist,Tamil Nadu), Sepoy Rama Moorthy N (Gudisatana Palli , Krishna Giri Dist, Tamil Nadu), Sepoy Mustaq Ahmed S (Parnapalle, Kurnool Dist, Andhra Pradesh), and Sepoy Nursing Assistant Suryawanshi SV (Maskarwadi, Satara Dist, Maharashtra).
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