18 soldiers of the Indian army have gone missing in Jammu and Kashmir
14 Aug, 2014As per the reply provided by the Ministry of External Affairs to an applicant who filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, between 1996 and 2010, twenty soldiers have gone missing. Out of these, eighteen soldiers went missing from Jammu and Kashmir while two disappeared from Gujarat.
· On August 12, 1996, Havaldar Bhupendra Bahadur Thapa, Netra Bahadur Thapa, Naik Hark Bahadur Rana and Lance Naik Raju Gurang of Gorkha Rifles went missing from Krishna Ghati of Poonch district in Jammu and Kashmir.
· On August 16, 1996, Captain Avinash Kumar Sharma of 11 Engineer Regiment went missing from the Akhnoor sector of Jammu and Kashmir on August 16, 1996.
· On April 27, 1997, Captain Sanjiv Bhattacharjee and Lance Naik Ram Bahadur Thapa of Gorkha Rifles disappeared from the Rann of Kutch.
· On October 17, 1998, GNR Virendra Singh of 286 Medium Regiment went missing from the Kaksar Sector of Jammu and Kashmir
· On August 20, 2000, Gopal Das of 8 Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry went missing from Poonch Sector of Jammu and Kashmir.
· On August 8, 2003, Lance Naik Jose James of 5131 ASC BN went missing from Kargil on June 15, 2003, the reply stated. Krishna Kumar of 6 Engineer Regiment went missing from the Uri Sector in Jammu and Kashmir.
· On July 8, 2005Mahesh and Sailesh Kumar Shukla of 539 ASC BN disappeared from Jammu and Kashmir.
· On April 26, 2006, Naik Sandeep Singh of 234 AER Unit is also missing from Jammu and Kashmir.
· On August 5, 2006, Vikram Singh and Bishnu Rai of 17 Mahar Regiment went missing from Batalik.
· On August 6, 2010, Havaldar Ranjit Kumar and Rakesh Kumar of 15 Bihar Regiment went missing from Siachin while riflemen Sewang Dorjai and Karma Namagil of Ladhak Scouts Regiment Centre had gone missing from Leh.
The reasons / circumstances behind the disappearance of the soldiers were not disclosed in the reply.