An Indian Army officer and another soldier were killed in an avalanche at a pass on the road to a point where Indian and Chinese soldiers were in a scuffle on Saturday, May 9.
Indian Army @adgpi official statement: Lt Col Robert TA and Sapper/OPEM Sapala Shanmukha Rao "who were trapped under the ice lost their lives". Other members of the team are safe.
The patrol and snow clearance party was hit by an avalanche on May 14 afternoon. Sapper Rao died about 4 hrs after he was found. Lt Colonel Robert TA was missing for longer. The patrol was part of a team clearing the road to Naku La. This was at a height of more than 16000 ft.
Lugnak La, where the patrol was hit, is shut to the outside world. It is used almost solely by the army and its support staff and by the Drokpa, a small local tribe of Yak herders.
The tragedy at Lugnak La on Thursday is the latest in the series of incidents that take a toll on the military even though there has been no real firing between Indian and Chinese armies in more than 30 years on the unsettled Himalayan-Tibetan frontier.
Since April 27, there have been fisticuffs, and the use of clubs, at both the western sector, in Ladakh, and in the eastern sector, in North Sikkim. Both India and China today claimed that the disputes were being resolved through dialogue. But a tautness remains.
North Sikkim. The 'Finger Area' : 
Lugnak La and Naku La across the Lhonak Valley:
(Source: Across Peaks and Passes in Darjeeling & Sikkim by Harish Kapadia/Indus Publishing)
(Source: Across Peaks and Passes in Darjeeling & Sikkim by Harish Kapadia/Indus Publishing)
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