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| 5 Indian peacekeepers killed in South Sudan ambush | | | New Delhi: Five Indian peacekeepers lost their lives while escorting a United Nations convoy in a particularly volatile part of South Sudan on Tuesday morning. The dead included a Lt. Colonel, one junior commissioned officer and three jawans while five were injured including an officer, according to the information received by the Foreign Office from the Indian Ambassador in South Sudan.
Immediately after hearing of the incident, three U.N. helicopters took off for casualty evacuation operations, bringing the injured to South Sudan’s capital Juba, from where they were being taken to the U.N. mission hospital when reports last came in.
The bodies of the five dead will be brought back to the country, said official sources. A contingent of 2,200 Indian Army personnel is serving in the United Nations Mission in South Sudan. While one lot is based in Malakkal, Upper Nile, on the border with Sudan and the other, to which the ill-fated troopers belonged, is located in Jonglei. It is not clear how the convoy of 32 Indian soldiers was attacked as further details were being determined. Reports had still not come in so far following a meeting between Indian diplomats and U.N. officials to get further details and tie up arrangements for treatment of the injured and sending back bodies of the dead.
Army sources said two officers and soldiers from 9 Mechanised Infantry battalion and 6 Mahar Regiment were escorting a convoy of UN vehicles from Gurmuck to Bor in South Sudan when a suspected militia group attacked it with small arms and Rocket-propelled Grenades (RPGs). Exchange of fire between the Indian troops and the militia group continued for more than one hour in which one officer, one JCO and three jawans were killed. Sources said the personnel killed in the incident were Lt. Col. Mahipal Singh, Havaldars Heera Lal and Bharat Sasmal from 9 Mechanised Infantry and Naib Subedar Shiv Kumar Pal and soldier Naval Kishore from 6 Mahar. |
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