New Delhi, August 7
The eyeball-to-eyeball deployment of well armed forces of India and Pakistan along the Line of Control notwithstanding, the Indian Army has sounded its arch rival for some “help”.

This one is for concern over 33 of Indian soldiers who have been washed away in the mudslide and floods in Leh and it is feared that they may end up in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK). These soldiers - 3 JCO’s and 30 jawans - of the 15 Bihar infantry were posted near Turtok. Their posts were on the banks of the river Shyok. The river meanders into PoK and the area where the incident occurred is close to the LoC.

The river is in spate and the rains have made it unusually ferocious, sources said while quoting reports from field formations.

The Indian Army has launched a search operation for its jawans. However, optimism is dying down “..there is little hope…. the boys are so well trained that they may have showed up by now .. Pakistan has also not informed of any sighting so far”, sources said.

The Army fears that the river which has narrow gorges and is strewn with boulders will be tough to negotiate even for the highly skilled and trained jawans. Some of the personal belongings of the jawans have been traced, leading to fears for the worst. These are areas where the mountains are 15,000 feet to 18,000 feet high and this is where the two armies fought a very bloody battle in 1999.

Normally, if a Pakistan Army soldier spots an Indian soldier into their territory their commander is informed. The same is true when an Indian soldier spots an enemy soldier. Under normal circumstances any soldiers who meanders across accidentally is told to back off. This may be an unusual case.

Lt Col Kedar Gokhale from the Engineers, along with two jawans, was on his way to Karu some 42 kms from Leh when he encountered horror en route around 12.30 am yesterday.

Col Gokhale has reported back to his bosses that the entire town of Choglumsar was ploughed down under a wave of mud and slush along with boulders as big as small cars.