The officers and jawans of the Indian Army in Naushera in J-K's Rajouri district celebrated the festival of Diwali on Saturday by lighting candles and Diyas away from their homes.
The Defence Public Relations Officer (PRO) Guwahati informed about the incident on X and posted, "23 army personnel have been reported missing due to a flash flood that occurred in Teesta River in Lachen Valley after a sudden cloud burst over Lhonak Lake in North Sikkim."
Carrying forward a practice that has become a custom for Raksha Bandhan every year, local women at Churanda village in Uri sector on the Line of Control (LoC) turned out in numbers to celebrate the eternal sibling bond with Army jawans.
As many as nine soldiers of the Indian Army were killed and one was injured after their vehicle fell into a gorge in Ladakh, defence officials said on Saturday.
"Havaldar S Maity & Naik Parve Kishore lost their lives in the line of duty while driving a vehicle during operational duty in East Sikkim," an Indian army official said in a statement.
On his visit to the Army Base Camp in Rajouri in Jammu and Kashmir, the Defence Minister reviewed the operational capabilities and security situation along the border.
A team from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is to visit Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch where five Indian Army soldiers were killed on Thursday in a terrorist attack on a truck they were travelling in.