Saturday, February 11, 2012

Home they bring dead warriors in noodle cartons

NEW DELHI, Oct 9, 2011: Honour in death is what every soldier aspires for. But even that was denied to the two soldiers of the Indian Army posted in the Siachen Glacier. What else could explain the mortal remains of two officers martyred in a fire at a forward base in the Siachen area, the world’s highest and coldest battleground, being packed in instant noodle cartons and sent back.

On July 23, Major Gurbhej Singh and Lieutenant Archit Vardiya were killed when their bunker at 19,000 feet in the northern part of Siachen Glacier, where Indian and Pakistani forces have confronted each other since 1984, accidentally caught fire. A soldier posted at Siachen said on condition of anonymity: “Both the officers were charred beyond identification. Their remains had to be scraped off from the site.” 

Another soldier said: “The only packing material available was noodle cartons. The remains were choppered down.” 

The 1.1-million strong Indian Army, which takes pride in giving a respectful burial even to its enemies, does not see any wrong in packing the remains of its soldiers in cartons. 

That the last bad news from Siachen was about a scam in the procurement of coffins makes the current state of affairs worse.

The bereaved families of the two officers could not even conduct their last rites as their remains were sent for scientific identification. The Kapurthala-based father of Major Ghurbhej Singh, himself a retired Indian Army officer, Colonel Rajinder Singh, has no words to express his sorrow. Gurbhej is survived by his wife Sarbjit Kaur and three-month-old son Agamjot. 

A close friend of Gurbhej Singh’s family in Kapurthala said: “Honour in death is the only thing a soldier aspires for. But the callousness observed by the army in this episode has shocked everyone in the family and the village.”

The incident of callous treatment meted out to its martyrs at Siachen is not the only one in two decades of deployment. In a battlefield where the weather claims more lives than bullets the army is yet to find an honourable way to retrieve the bodies of its soldiers from the dominating feature of the Siachen area–the Saltoro Ridge.

“In some incidents when soldiers die at these heights their bodies get rigid and hence cannot be accommodated in the Chetak and Cheetah helicopters. These are very small helicopters operating in the glacier. Hence at times the body has to be amputated and packed in whatever is available at the post,” said another officer presently posted at the Army Headquarters and who was deployed at Siachen in late 1980’s.

The army in several cases has been exercising the option of putting the body in a sleeping bag and tying it to a ladder so that it can be carried by two soldiers to lower heights. But the time and efforts consuming option is not exercised every time.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been aspiring for a “peace park” in Siachen, but the government seems to be overlooking how the army and air force have been sustaining their men and posts at the cost of themselves.

No comments:

Post a Comment