crash victim’s body

March 20,2004

Hoping against hope to get crash victim's body
Tribune News Service

Jammu, March 19
Although the Army and the IAF last summer abandoned their efforts to trace the bodies of the soldiers killed 36 years ago in an air crash on the South Dhakka glacier in the Lahaul-Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh, the relatives of 2nd Lieut Banarsi Lal have not lost hope that his remains will be dug out of the snow in case the operation was resumed.

The joint operation to trace the bodies of the soldiers who had been flying in the ill-fated AN 12 was launched in August last year following the recovery of the skeletal remains of Sepoy Beli Ram on the 16,000 ft glacier by trekkers of the Manali-based Mountaineering Institute. Sepoy Beli Ram belonged to the Akhnoor area of Jammu district, while 2nd Lieut Banarsi Lal was from the Hiranagar tehsil of Kathua district.

Capt Harbans Lal (retd), is a brother of 2nd Lieut Banarsi Lal, has been perusing the matter with the Army authorities and the family members of 2nd Lieut Banarsi Lal wonder whether his body will be traced so that they can perform his last rites.

The aircraft had disappeared during its flight from Chandigarh to Leh on February 7, 1968, and the family, residing in Kathua district, has preserved the letter dated May 12, 1972, that they received from the Army Chief, Gen S.H.F.J. Manekshaw, expressing condolences over the death of 2nd Lieut Banarsi Lal.

When contacted on the telephone by this correspondent today, Col H.S. Chauhan, Director of the Mountaineering Institute, said a few teams of trekkers would be despatched to the South Dhakka glacier in the summer to again recce the area. However, he was not very hopeful of finding any more bodies or skeletal remains.

He said it was just a coincidence that the skeletal remains of Sepoy Beli Ram were detected on the glacier last year when a lot of snow had melted. Only the warming up of weather might bring out the remains, as it was not possible to dig the hard snow at a height of 16,000 ft.

Some wreckage of the aircraft was found scattered at the base of the Chandra Bhaga-13 peak that it had hit. As many as 36 winters have passed since the crash and the bodies might have got buried under the glacier, he said.

The trekkers had come across pieces of bones scattered there and Sepoy Beli Ram could be identified as his service book was recovered from the pocket of the long coat in which the skeletal remains remained wrapped all these years.