Itanagar: An Indian Army personnel in the rank of Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) ‘accidentally’ fell into a fast-flowing mountain stream while on an operational patrol in forward areas of Arunachal Pradesh.
The incident happened on Sunday last.
Although a search operation was launched immediately, the whereabouts of the missing JCO were not known yet, Defence sources said on Wednesday.
“On 26 June 2022 at approximately 1400 hours, during an operational patrol in the forward areas of the remote Lower Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh, Naib Subedar Amrendra Kumar of Red Shield Division slipped and accidentally fell into a fast-flowing mountain stream.
An immediate search operation was launched by search parties in the area along the stream,” a statement from the Indian Army said.
A large number of search parties have since been launched and the scope of search has been expanded to include the downstream flow of the mountain stream.
The assistance of local villagers and civil administration is also being taken and they have been incorporated in the efforts to locate the JCO, the statement said.
The extensive search operation has continued non-stop, even as extremely rugged terrain, inclement weather and incessant rains have made progress very slow.
Notwithstanding the adverse climatic conditions, all-out efforts are being made by deploying all available resources to locate the missing JCO, it added.
The missing JCO belongs to 3 Corps Headquarters, based at Rangapahar near Dimapur in Nagaland.
It may be mentioned that in a similar incident, two Army jawans, deployed in forward areas in Arunachal Pradesh’s Anjaw district, went missing and they were presumed to have accidentally fallen into a fast-flowing river close to their Post.
That incident happened on May 28 and the jawans – both hailing from Uttarakhand – remain traceless, Army sources informed.
“Despite immediate and extensive search and rescue operations, including aerial reconnaissance and tracker dogs being pressed into action, no success in recovery of the personnel has been achieved,” the Army had said.
