New Delhi, Sep 2 (NVI) Two Army commandos have gone missing during a training exercise in Hathnikund Barrage of Yamun river in Haryana and a large scale search has been launched to trace them.
The two soldiers of 1 Para Special Forces (SF) were part of a five-member group conducting an exercise when their army boat experienced a technical snag.
According to a statement by the Chandigarh-based defence public relations officer (PRO), the boat got caught in strong currents towards the downstream barrage.
“The teams made swift efforts to retrieve the boat. However, the boat got struck in strong eddies around the sluice gates and capsized resulting in the crew getting swept away by the strong currents. Two members of the crew are presently missing,” the spokesperson said.
While three soldiers managed to swim to safety, strong currents swept the remaining two downstream.
Two helicopters are conducting aerial surveys along the barrage and downstream parallel canals—the Western Yamuna Canal (WJC) toward Haryana and the Eastern Jamuna Canal (EJC) toward Uttar Pradesh.
To facilitate the search, the Haryana irrigation and water resources department reduced water discharge at the barrage and WJC following a request from the army.
Pratap Nagar police station SHO inspector Rohtash confirmed that the multi-agency operation is underway, though the missing personnel have yet to be traced. (NVI)
