Major Shyamal Sinha, the hero of Kargil war and recipient of gallantry award, Vir Chakra, has been missing for a week in the Garhwal Himalayas. Major Shyamal Sinha had won the gallantry award ‘Vir Chakra’, for audacious action against Pakistani intruders on the Southern Glacier during Operation Vijay in May 1999.

Major Sinha was a part of an Army mountaineering team and the team was climbing the Nanda Devi peak. He was leading the 5-member team to the 7,434-m high summit of the treacherous mountain in Garhwal Himalayas. According to the report, they lost contact with base camp after a severe snowstorm in the region on Sept 26.

The Army sources have made it confirm that the base camp failed to establish any contact with the team after Sept 26. They said that the climbing team had said in the last radio call received on September 26 afternoon that they were coming down to lower camp because of the bad weather.

After September 26, the base camp failed to make contact with the team till the date. They received no call from the team after a heavy snowfall and whiteout hit the entire Garhwal region. Major Shyamal Sinha, One JCO and three other jawans, whose names have not been released till date, were in the climbing team.

According to Army officer, major Sinha is a well-experienced mountain climber with an instructor grading from the Army’s High Altitude Warfare School (HAWS). They expressed hope that he would have managed to find cover for him and his team during the snowstorm in the region.

The army had started the search operations but it was initially hampered because of bad weather. Army officials said that the regular sorties were being carried out and an Army Aviation Wing helicopter had been kept on reserve for rescue missions if needed. The Air Force helicopter with specialized search teams from Army’s High Altitude Warfare School has gone for another search operation on Wednesday.

An Army officer said:

We carried out several sorties in the area but the snowfall has wiped out any traces. Three ground-based parties from HAWS are carrying out a thorough search operation in the area. We are hoping that they found some kind of cover to escape the storm.

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