Peacekeepers bodies being airlifted, to reach Delhi tonight

New Delhi, April 10: The mortal remains of five Indian Peacekeepers are being flow from to the capital by Ethiopian Airlines and likely to reach Delhi airport at 11.30 pm tonight.

A Lt Colonel was among the five army personnel killed yesterday when their 32-member convoy was attacked in the ambush at Gumuruk in South Sudan's troubled Jonglei state.

The soldiers killed yesterday are: Lt Col Mahipal Singh, Naib Subedar Shiv Kumar Pal, havaldars Heera Lal and Bharat Samsal and Lance Naik Nand Kishor Joshi.

Lt Col Singh was the patrol leader and was fired upon at close range.
Five Peacekeepers injured in the incident are: Captain Bhagirath, Havaldar Ram, LanceNaiks Ramesh and Naginder Kumar, and Sepoy Rajiv Kumar .

Capt Bhagirath who has suffered three gunshot wounds and Havaldar Ram also shot at, require neuro care and are being airlifted to India.

Other soldiers injured in the ambush - Ramesh, Naginder Kumar and Rajiv Kumar - are recovering and likely to rejoin the contingent shortly.

India has about 2,200 Indian army personnel in South Sudan. They are in two battalions. One is based in Jonglei and the other is in Malakal, in the Upper Nile, on the border with Sudan.

"There were 200 attackers," UN peacekeeping spokeswoman Josephine Guerrero told a news agency. UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon said the attack could amount to a war crime as he joined the UN Security Council in condemning the attack.

The South Sudan government has blamed followers of rebel leader David Yau Yau for the ambush. Government forces have been battling the rebels in Jonglei while UN peacekeepers are trying to maintain order and minimise civilian causalities.

South Sudan ended decades of civil war with Sudan in 2005 and peacefully formed its own country in 2011. But the south is still plagued by internal violence and shaky relations with Sudan. Leaders in Khartoum, Sudan's capital, deny that they are arming Yau Yau.

OneIndia News