Another Indian soldier’s body found in Skardu

GILGIT: An Indian soldier’s body was retrieved on Tuesday from a river in Skardu, the second such incident in a month.

According to sources, the body was found in the Sheok River by residents of the Siari sector in Ghanche district. “Clad in the Indian army’s uniform, the body was floating in the river when some people spotted it and pulled it out of the water,” sources from Skardu told The Express Tribune.

The Sheok River flows through Ladakh, India, and enters Ghanche district of Gilgit-Baltistan after covering a distance of 500 kilometres. The soldier is believed to have died in Indian Kashmir during a rescue operation in the neighbouring flood-hit areas and his body flowed into Pakistan in gushing floodwaters. Last month, another body was fished out of the same river in Khaplu area.

The people turned in the body to the authorities who then handed it over to the Indian authorities in Kargil sector, sources said.

In another incident, two brothers drowned in Shigar River late on Monday. Mohammad Hassan and Sheikh Ali Hassan were at the bank of the river when one of them slipped and fell into the river, sources said.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 15^th, 2010.