SHIMLA, Sep 24 (UNI): DNA tests is being done to identify the bodies of the Army personnel recovered from Sutlej river in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh after an under construction Bailey bridge in the district collapsed on September eight, Army sources said today.
Only DNA tests would help in identifying the bodies.
DNA samples of the families of the Army soldiers were being matched with those of the soldiers, the sources said.
Two bodies of the soldiers recovered on Tuesday and another retrieved on Monday were yet to be identified as they were mutilated beyond recognition.
Only seven bodies, out of a total of 34, have been recovered from the river so far after a Bailey bridge, nearing completion, over Sutlej collapsed in the district on September eight.
District SP Arvind Sharda said neither any body was sighted nor pulled out from the river today, adding that the "sighting teams" comprising the Army, the ITBP, the police and the Home Guards, were scouring downstream areas for the remaining bodies.
The sources here said the recovered bodies have been taken to the Army base at Chandimandir in Chandigarh and only the DNA test would now help in identifying the bodies.
The other three bodies recovered from the Sutlej have been identified as Lt Colonel Amarjit Singh, Lance Naik Muthu Raj and soldier Raviselvam.
The bridge would be reconstructed within 15 days after work on it begins, the sources said, adding that it was difficult to say when work would actually begin.
The under construction bridge was one of the three being constructed by the Army to restore vital road link in Pooh sector of the state where strategic bridges were away on June 26 following a breach in an artificial lake - Pareecchu - in Tibet close to the Indian border.
