As Army Chief General Bikram Singh arrived in Jammu on Wednesday and paid homage to the five martyrs, their final journey was delayed almost six hours due to non-availability of a transport aircraft.
Singh was accompanied by Northern Command GoC-in-C lt Gen Sanjeev Chachra and GoC 16 Corps lt Gen DS Hooda, though no Minister, no one from the Omar Abdullah-led Government or administration felt able to make it, barring a single senior police officer. The Army chief continued his journey to Poonch, while the long wait to dispatch caskets began. According to official sources, a plane was detailed by the Army from leh but could not land in Jammu due to inclement weather. Even commercial flights between Jammu and Srinagar were grounded.
It was finally decided to transport the bodies via Air India flight AI 822 to Delhi, which departed at 3.50 pm. Earlier, the bodies of the jawans belonging to 21 Bihar Regiment and 14 Maratha light Infantry were shifted from Poonch by road to Jammu after a formal wreath-laying ceremony and ceremonial guard of honor in Poonch late Tuesday evening.
The bodies of the four jawans hailing from Bihar, Naik Prem Nath (35, Chappra), lance Naik Shambu Saran (29, Bhojpur), Sepoy Vijay Kumar Rai (27, Patna), Sepoy Ragunandan (23, Chhapra) and the 36-year-old Naik Pundalik Mane from Kolhapur in Maharashtra, are expected to reach their native places late Wednesday evening, official sources said. The last rites of the jawans would be performed with full military honours in their native places on Thursday.
On his part, the Army Chief also took stock of the security situation along the line of Control (loC) in Akhnoor after he had to cancel his visit to the forward areas of Poonch due to inclement weather conditions. On his return, he is supposed to brief Defence Minister AK Antony on the current situation along the loC besides submit a comprehensive report on the incident.