Bodies of two National Institute of Technology (NIT), Hamirpur students, who had gone trekking in Janjehali Valley in Mandi district a week ago, have been found.
Reports said that bodies of both the students were snow-clad and recovered near Shikari Devi temple on Friday. The temple is located 150km from Manali. Temperature in the region has been hovering around minus 15 degree Celsius for more than a week.
According to identity cards found from their bodies, the deceased students have been identified as Akshay Kumar of Hamirpur's Sujanpur and Navneet Rana of Bilaspur. It is, however, not known whether the students were climbing to the temple or were on their way back.
A 40-member search team and a chopper were pressed into action after their parents filed missing complaints, police said. Earlier there were reports that fours students were missing but police said that they received complaints about two only.
As per information received from the hostel of NIT, the students had made entries in record book that they were going home. But their Facebook posts said they had gone to trek the Shikari Peak.
Biting cold wave conditions continued unabated in Himachal Pradesh as the mercury hovered around freezing point at most places. High altitude tribal areas reeled under Arctic conditions with minimum temperatures settling between minus 18 to minus 26 Celsius.
In March last year, eight youths had gone missing near Kullu. A massive search mission was launched and they were saved after three days.
