The body of an Indian Army soldier has been found 38 years after he went missing on a glacier at the highest point on the India-Pakistan border in Kashmir.
The Associated Press writes about it.
In May 1984, this soldier and 17 of his colleagues were on the Siachen Glacier, which is located in the Karakorum Range in the Ladakh region of Kashmir. An avalanche descended on them there.
Then the bodies of 13 soldiers were found, and five were considered missing.
A group of soldiers on Monday, August 15, found human remains with an identification tag on the glacier. It belonged to Chandra Shekhar, a soldier who went missing 38 years ago.
Shekhar served in the Indian military unit that captured the 76-kilometer-long glacier in 1984 during fierce fighting with the Pakistani army. This glacier is considered the highest battlefield in the world. It was deserted before Indian troops moved there.
India and Pakistan have deployed troops at an altitude of up to 6 700 meters. They fought occasional skirmishes on the glacier, but it is known that most of the Indian and Pakistani troops died from the grueling conditions, not from enemy fire.
On Wednesday, August 17, Shekharʼs body was brought to his native village in the northern state of Uttarakhand. He was buried with military honors.