RAWALPINDI: At least two pilots of the Pakistan Army Aviation embraced martyrdom after their helicopter crashed in Siachin, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) reported on Monday.
In a statement, the military’s media wing identified the martyred officers as Major Irfan Bercha and Major Raja Zeeshan Jahanzeb. “Search and rescue helicopters and army troops have reached the incident site,” the statement added.
In December 2020, a Pakistan Army Aviation helicopter crashed due to technical reasons while carrying out casualty evacuation in Gilgit-Baltistan’s remote area, Minimarg.
Two officers and as many soldiers were martyred in the unfortunate incident, military had said. “The helicopter was evacuating body of shaheed (martyred) soldier Sepoy Abdul Qadeer to CMH [Combined Military Hospital] Skardu,” said military’s media wing, the ISPR had said.
The glacier is surrounded by some of the world’s highest peaks and lies near the de facto border with India in the militarised region of Kashmir, which has caused two of the three wars between the two countries since independence in 1947.
The nuclear-armed rivals have fought over Siachen in 1987, but guns on the glacier have largely fallen silent since a slow-moving peace process was launched in 2004.
