3 JCOs among 26 army personnel missing in Leh

LEH - At least 26 army personnel, including three junior commissioned officers (JCOs), are missing from a border post in Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir since Friday’s flash floods triggered by a cloudburst that killed nearly 150 people.

Army officials Monday said some of the missing personnel may have been buried under a mudslide while a few are feared to have been washed away by the Shyok river into areas under Pakistani control.

“The cloudburst has done a lot of damage to civilian as well as military establishments,” GOC of Leh-based 14 Corps Lt Gen S.K. Singh said here.

He said the river water rose due to the cloudburst and washed away the Tyakshi border post in Turtuk sector, about 150 metres from the Line of Control (LoC).

Small culverts and bridges in the border area have also been destroyed.

“It (the area) turned into a sort of lake and breached the embankments, bringing the complete hillside down,” the officer said.

“Our total losses are 26 (personnel), and I think the bulk of them would be buried under the rubble. However, it cannot be ruled out that some of them could have been washed away,” he said.

The Shyok river flows through the area into the Northern Areas of Gilgit Baltistan under Pakistani control.