Officer & Soldier Killed in North Sikkim Avalanche
Fauji India|
Updated:May 15, 2020, 11:59 pm IST
Staff Correspondent
The Indian Army has identified Lt Col Robert TA and Sapper Sapala Shanmukha Rao to have been killed in an avalanche in the mountainous Lugnak La region of north Sikkim on May 14, Thursday. The two personnel were part of an 18-member group “patrolling-cum-snow clearance” that came under the avalanche.
“In spite of the best efforts of the rescue team and local formation (the personnel) lost their lives,” he said. In a similar incident earlier, Lance Naik Sanjeeva Reddy, who was operating a dozer in the snowbound high-altitude areas of Sikkim, was hit by an avalanche on April 11. According to a reply by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in Parliament in December 2016, more than 70 soldiers have lost their lives in avalanches since 2016.
