Siachen avalanche: Sepoy Mushtaq Ahmed laid to rest with military honours

Kurnool, Feb 16: Sepoy Mushtaq Ahmed, who was among the 10 soldiers killed in an avalanche on Siachen glacier, was on Tuesday laid to rest with full military honours in his native village in Andhra Pradesh.

A pall of gloom descended on Parnapalle village in Bandi Atmakur mandal of Kurnool district as people bid tearful adieu to the soldier.

Military, police and civil officials and politicians paid their last respects to Mushtaq, who was buried at a village graveyard.

Andhra Pradesh's Deputy Chief Minister K.E. Krishna Murthy and YSR Congress party chief Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy were among those who attended the last rites.

The deputy chief minister later presented a cheque of Rs.25 lakh to the family of deceased soldier.

The body of Mushtaq reached the village late Monday night from Hyderabad, where it was brought from New Delhi on Monday by a special aircraft of Indian Air Force (IAF).

Mushtaq, 30, is survived by his wife and aged parents, according to a defence statement.

He had enrolled in the 19th Battalion the Madras Regiment in 2004 and served as part of his battalion in counter insurgency operations in the North East and in Jammu and Kashmir.

He had also served in the Rashtriya Rifles (RR) force in Jammu and Kashmir. A keen sportsman, Mushtaq volunteered to be part of one of the most crucial posts in the icy Siachen Glacier at an altitude of 19,600 feet in sub-zero temperature.

It was February 3, when an avalanche swept away one Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) and nine Other Ranks (ORs) in the Siachen Glacier while they were on duty.

IANS