Three soldiers of the Indian Army died after they slipped into a deep gorge during patrolling along the Line of Control in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir.
In a tweet, Chinar Corps said that a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) and two Other Rank army men were killed when they were conducting a regular operation in the Machhal sector.
The bodies of the soldiers have been retrieved, the Army said.
“Incident #ChinarWarriors in #Machhal Sector. During a regular op task in forward area, a party of 01 JCO & 02 OR slipped into a deep gorge, when snow on the track gave way. Mortal remains of all the three #bravehearts have been retrieved. Further details follow,” the Chinar Corps tweeted.
A defence spokesperson told news agency PTI that the incident took place at 5:30 PM on Tuesday when the soldiers were on a routine operational task along a narrow winter track. While moving towards the forward post, snow along the narrow track broke, and the jawans fell into a deep gorge.
He said search and rescue operations started immediately despite the harsh weather conditions and rough terrain, and “sustained efforts of the search party led to the recovery of mortal remains of the three brave soldiers today morning between 04:15 to 04:45 AM,” he added.
The deceased soldiers were identified as Naib Subedar Parshotam Kumar (43) from Jammu and Kashmir’s Bishnah area, Havildar Amrik Singh (39) from Una in Himachal Pradesh and sepoy Amit Sharma (23) from Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh.
Kumar, who joined the Army in 1996, is survived by his wife and two children, Singh leaves behind his wife and son, and Sharma is survived by his mother.
“The mortal remains of the three bravehearts will be taken for last rites to their respective native places, where they would be laid to rest with full military honours,” the spokesman said.