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2 Army officers killed in Siachen fire
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 22
Two Army officers, including a Major, were charred to death and four jawans injured when a bunker caught fire on the Siachen Glacier. Sources confirmed that Maj GS Cheema from the Armoured Corps and Lieutenant Archit Vardia from Corps of Artillery were killed in a fire that engulfed their bunker on Thursday.

Four soldiers were also injured in the mishap. Major Gurphej Cheema, an infantry officer with 13 Mahar Regiment, belonged to Damoolian village in Kapurthala. He leaves behind his wife Ranjit Kaur, year-old son Agamjot and his parents. Vardia was from Udaipur, Rajasthan.

The post is at an altitude of 18,000 feet on the northern part of the Siachen Glacier that has PoK to its west and the Chinese-controlled Shaksgam Valley to its north. The fire broke out in one of the new-model fibreglass huts, but these huts were not part of the DRDO project to provide insulated bunkers to soldiers on the icy wasteland.

Army sources said a court of enquiry has been ordered to trace the origin of the fire. The bodies of the officers have been brought down using choppers and will be flown to the respective hometowns.

This is the second fire incident in five years at Siachen, the world's highest battlefield. A Major and a Captain were killed in a similar fire incident in 2006.

Temperatures at the 70-km long glacier dip to minus 50 degrees Celsius in winter and are below freezing point even in summer. The bunkers are kept warm with kerosene heaters. (With PTI inputs)