'Nation will remain indebted to martyred soldiers': Def Min Rajnath Singh in Siachen

Srinagar, June 03: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who visited the Siachen glacier today, said that nation will always remain indebted to the services and the sacrifices of soldiers guarding the borders of the country.

Rajnath Singh, who has been appointed as the defence minister in Modi 2.0 government, paid tributes to the martyred soldiers.

"I salute your spirit, your valour from the bottom of my heart. Jawans and officers in the Armed forces have a sense of pride, that is the strongest sentiment in the heart of any human," he said in a tweet.

"Paid tributes to the martyred soldiers who sacrificed their lives while serving in Siachen. More than 1100 soldiers have made supreme sacrifice defending the Siachen Glacier. The nation will always remain indebted to their service and sacrifice," he added.

Army chief General Bipin Rawat also accompanied Singh, who was on Saturday briefed by top officials on the functioning of the ministry.

The glacier, a 76-km river of slow moving ice, is of extreme strategic importance to India. Army officials say that as long as the glacier is under India's control, the Pakistani army cannot link up with the Chinese and pose threat to the Ladakh region.