Sepoy Devender Kumar Soni

During Jan 2017, Sep Devender Kumar Soni's unit was deployed in the Gurez sector of North Kashmir along the LOC. The AOR(Area of Responsibility) of the unit spanned over remote rugged mountainous terrain with extreme weather conditions, especially in the winter season. The troops were deployed on various forward posts and often undertook patrol to monitor the area in between the manned posts. Also, heavy snowfall often blocked the roads and hampered the movement of troops which necessitated frequent clearance operations. On 25 Jan 2017, a horrific avalanche struck 51 RR battalion Army camp, which took Sep Devender Kumar Soni and many of his comrades off guard. The avalanche hit the post at Neeru village located in the Tulail area, 25 km away from Gurez town in North Kashmir. The place located along the LOC normally remained cut off by road in winter. The avalanche hit the area a few hundred meters away from the HQs of 51 RR unit and trapped the soldiers, who were on patrol.

The soldiers invariably faced extreme risks in manning the inhospitable terrain under extreme weather conditions. Avalanches usually took place due to the accumulation of snow and were triggered by morning sunlight. In other cases, when the slope of accumulated snow was between 60 to 80 degrees, the instability led to an avalanche. Although the Army had a unit of the Snow Avalanche Study Establishment (SASE) in Jammu and Kashmir, with several observatories at various locations to issue warnings and alerts to the Army formations and units, it could not detect this avalanche. The magnitude and suddenness of the avalanche did not give any time to Sep Devender Kumar Soni and other soldiers of the 51 RR battalion to take any defensive measures.  As a result, the soldiers got buried under tons of snow and it was very difficult to locate them. 

A massive rescue operation was launched by the Army which continued for several hours to locate and rescue the trapped soldiers. The teams of Army undertook rescue operations under extreme weather conditions but could not save the lives of Sep Devender Kumar Soni and thirteen other soldiers. Besides Sep Devender Kumar Soni, the other martyred brave-hearts included Nk Ajit Singh, Nb Sub Aram Singh Gurjar, Hav Vijay Kumar Shukla, Sep Samundare Vikas, Sep Sanju Suresh Khandare, Sep Sandeep Kumar D P, Sep Sunil Patel, Sep Nagaraju Mamidi, Sep Anand Gawai, Sep Elaverson B, Sep Azad Singh, Sep Sundara Pandi, and Craftsman Ankur Singh.Sep Devender Kumar Soni was a valiant soldier who laid down his life in the line of his duty.