Bodies of 16 Army men, who died in Sikkim gorge accident, sent back home
The 16 soldiers, including three officers, of the Indian Army died when a truck in which they were travelling skidded down a steep slope at Zema, an army statement said.
Wreaths were laid at a ceremony at Bagdogra airport in West Bengal on Saturday for the 16 Indian Army personnel who died in a road accident at North Sikkim's Zema on Friday.
The 16 soldiers, including three officers, of the Indian Army died when a truck in which they were travelling skidded down a steep slope at Zema, an army statement said.
The wreath-laying ceremony for the mortal remains of the soldiers was held after the bodies arrived at the facility at 12.36pm, news agency PTI reported.
The deceased were accorded gun salute, and Sikkim governor Ganga Prasad, chief minister Prem Singh Tamang and Indian Army and Indian Air Force officials paid their last respects to the jawans.
The report added that the bodies were airlifted from Libing helipad in East Sikkim to Bagdogra airport. The bodies were then sent to the jawans' homes in different parts of the country.
The mortal remains were earlier brought to Sochethang near Gangtok in army vehicles and post-mortem examination was conducted.
Senior civil and police officials were present at the hospital to pay their last respects to the departed souls.
These were the brave hearts
The deceased soldiers are naib subedar Chandan Kumar Mishra and naib subedar Omkar Singh of 285 Medical regiment, L/Havildar Gopinath Makur, Sepoy Sukha Ram, Havildar Charan Singh and Naik Ravinder Singh Thapa of 26 Mechanised Infantry.
Mishra hailed from Khagaria in Bihar, while Omkar Singh was from Pathankot in Punjab, Makur from Bankura in West Bengal, Ram from Jodhpur in Rajasthan, Charan Singh from Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh and Thapa from Pantnagar in Uttarakhand.
From the 221 Field Regiment, naik Vaisakh S and naik Pramod Singh were among the deceased, while from the 25 Grenadiers, four soldiers who perished in the accident are L/Naik Bhupendra Singh, naik Shyam Singh Yadav, naik Lokesh Kumar and Grenadier Vikas Kumar.
Vaisakh was from Palakkad in Kerala, Pramod Singh hailed from Ara in Bihar, Bhupendra Singh was from Eta, Yadav from Unnao, Lokesh Kumar from Muzaffarnagar, all three places in Uttar Pradesh, while Vikas Kumar was a resident of Fatehabad in Haryana.
Subedar Guman Singh and L/Havildar Arvind Singh from 8 Rajasthan Rifles, L/naik Somvir Singh of 113 Engineer Regiment and L/naik Manoj Kumar of 1871 Field Regiment were also among the soldiers who died in the accident, the Indian army said.
Guman Singh was a resident of Jaisalmer in Rajasthan, while Arvind Singh was from Bhiwani in Haryana, Somvir Singh hailed from Hissar in Haryana and Manoj Kumar from Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan.
(With inputs from agencies)