AP News, August 21st, 2007
The soldier, barely 20 years old, was killed in a plane crash high in the northern Himalayas nearly 40 years ago. His snow-preserved body was finally brought home Tuesday, draped in the Indian flag and covered with fresh marigolds.
Nearly 400 people attended the cremation ceremony for Mahendra Nath Phukon near his family home in the village of Deodhai.
"God has preserved his body for so long for us to see. The pain of losing our brother appears real only now," said his younger brother, Durganath, fighting back tears.
Mahendra Nath Phukon died when an air force transport carrying him and his Indian army colleagues crashed into the 20,500-foot Chandrabhaga peak in Himachal Pradesh state in 1968. All 102 soldiers aboard were killed.
The frozen bodies of Phukon and two other soldiers were found by an army search team at an altitude of more than 17,500 feet earlier this month.
Phukon's body arrived in the eastern Dibrugarh district from New Delhi on Monday. It was taken to his village about 215 miles east of the Assam state capital of Gauhati, where hundreds of people paid their last respects Tuesday, the family said.
"The army cremated the body with full military honors, complete with gun salutes," said Shyamal Saikia, superintendent of police, who attended the funeral.
The army plans to build a memorial for him at the cremation site, Saikia said.
The Phukons had carried out a symbolic funeral without his body in 1968.
"We were shocked when some army officials visited us on Aug. 13 and told us about the recovery of Mahendra's body atop the Himalayas. This was nothing less than a miracle," said 72-year-old Jati Phukon, his eldest brother.
