Soldiers carry coffins containing bodies of nine avalanche victims, in New Delhi. A Tribune photograph

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 15

The bodies of nine soldiers buried alive in an avalanche on the Siachen glacier on February 3 were flown in here from the Ladakh region today.The bodies were later flown to Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Madurai, Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram for sending these to the native villages of the deceased soldiers.After a C130J Indian Air Force aircraft carrying the bodies of the soldiers touched down at the Palam airport here, Minister of State for Defence Rao Inderjit Singh and Army Chief General Dalbir Singh were among those who laid wreaths on the coffins to pay their last respects to the bravehearts.On February 3, 10 soldiers were buried under nearly 30 feet of ice and snow when an avalanche hit Sonam Post at an altitude of around 20,000 feet.Lance Naik Hanumanthappa Koppad was the only one found alive although he remained trapped under the snow for about six days. He died due to multi-organ failure at the Army Hospital Research and Referral in New Delhi on Thursday. Koppad was cremated in his home town in Karnataka on Friday.The bodies of the remaining nine soldiers were retrieved a week after the tragedy. Bad weather in the region hindered the process of flying the bodies out of Ladakh.The nine soldiers who died in the avalanche were: Subedar Nagesha TT of Tejur village in Karnataka; Havaldar Elum Alai M of Dukkam Parai village in Tamil Nadu; Lance Havildar S Kumar of Kumanan Thozhu village in Tamil Nadu; Lance Naik Sudheesh B of Monroethuruth village in Kerala; Sepoy Mahesha PN of HD Kote village in Karnataka; Sepoy Ganesan G of Chokkathevan Patti village in Tamil Nadu; Sepoy Rama Moorthy N of Gudisa tana Palli village in Tamil Nadu; Sepoy Mustaq Ahmed S of Parnapalle villagein Andhra Pradesh; and Sepoy (Nursing Assistant) Suryawanshi SV of Maskarwadi village in Maharashtra.