New Delhi: Lance Naik Hanumanthappa Koppad attained martyrdom on Thursday.
He bravely fought extreme conditions while buried under 25 feet of snow at Siachen Glaciaer after being hit by an avalanche along with nine of his colleagues.
However, the soldier lost the battle for life at an Army hospital here on Thursday and left the entire nation grieving.
His family is also in deep shock as it had hoped that their son would survive the latest battle as well after surviving in Siachen.
His wife Mahadevi had even expressed her last wish for him: "Dear God, the next time you want to take a life, please take mine. Let my husband live to protect the country, he should survive."
"It is a second birth for him," Hanumanthappa's mother Basamma had said.
While Hanumanthappa's survival was described as a miracle, it seems the fate had something else in store.
