India halts US missions to find WWII dead

Following some good yarns over the past few years about the Indiana Jones-style discoveries of the wreckage of fighter planes and bombers downed going "over the Hump" to join the battle against the Japanese in the Burma theater of World War II, India has reportedly put an end to US missions to recover its war dead from the jungles of the Northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh.

While missions were carried out by the US in the past to recover remains of aviators who perished in plane crashes while flying over the ‘hump’ to deliver supplies for allied forces fighting the Japanese in China, all missions to Arunachal have been halted for the past two years, the Indian Express reports. More than 500 US warplanes are believed to be missing while flying in the China, India and Burma theatre during the world war, the paper said. In Arunachal alone, estimates put the number of missing Americans at over 400.

The paper said that the US embassy had made requests to conduct at least two more missions last year, but canceled them this year after India refused to grant permission for the expeditions.  The Indian Express speculated that India's ongoing border dispute with China in Arunachal Pradesh was the reason for the change in policy.