5 Indian soldiers killed during military drill in Kashmir

SRINAGAR, Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (AA) – Five Indian soldiers, including an officer, were killed during a military exercise in the eastern Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir when their tank was swept away by the raging waters of the Shyok river, officials said.

The soldiers from the occupying Indian army in the region were trying to get the Russian origin T-72 tank across the river when the incident took place.

“Rescue teams were rushed to the location. However, due to high current and water levels, the rescue mission didn’t succeed and the tank crew lost their lives,” the officials said.

Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, expressing grief over the incident, said he was ‘deeply saddened’ by the accident.

“Deeply saddened at the loss of lives of five of our brave Indian Army soldiers in an unfortunate accident while getting the tank across a river in Ladakh,” Singh said in a post on X.

The incident comes at a time when the military standoff between India and China in eastern Ladakh is now in its fifth year, with no indication of an immediate resolution to the outstanding problems along the contested Line of Actual Control.

Last August, nine soldiers were killed when an army truck, part of a three-vehicle convoy, veered off the road and plunged into a deep gorge in Ladakh’s Leh district.

Kashmir has been a disputed region since 1947, and is claimed in parts by Pakistan, India and China. The picturesque Muslim majority area has been denied the right of self-determination as promised by UN Resolutions of 1948. Most of the region is under the iron-fisted occupation of the Indian army with frequent reports of rights abuses with little to no accountability.