Shaheed Sepoy Bajindra
Singh
Soldier
cremated without honoursDHARAMSALA, June 3: While military honour is accorded
to officers who lay down their lives fighting for the nation, no military
or civil official bothered to even lay a wreath on the mortal remains of
24-year-old soldier, Bajinder Singh, Nandloo village under the Dehra subdivision,
who died fighting infiltrators, in the Dras sector, on the Indo-Pak border.
>Six-feet-tall Bajinder died while
protecting the borders of the country on May 27. Son of a soldier, Jagdish Chand, he was the youngest of two brothers and a sister. He joined the
Army at the age of 21 and visited the village about two months back for
the last time at the time of his sisters marriage.
Having no prior intimation about
the death of her young son, Santosh Kumari, whose husband died seven years
back, couldn't believe her eyes when the coffin carrying the body of her
son, reached the village at about 6 a.m. yesterday morning. She was alone
in the house. Her elder son Vijay is employed at a petrol station in Chandigarh.
Unable to come to the terms to the tragedy that had struck her, she was
in consolable, as the coffin was brought to the house.
The decomposed remains of the valiant
soldier were brought to the village in a taxi by a Havildar of the 16 Grenadiers
to which Bajinder belonged. His body was flown to Jammu, from where it
was brought here in a taxi. He was killed while fighting infiltrators on
May 27, but no prior intimation had been sent to the family.
The villagers were critical of the
indifferent attitude shown by the authorities. They said whether it was
an Army officer or a simple soldier, each one of them deserved a befitting
farewell. They said practically each family from Kangra had one or more
member in the armed forces and this kind of treatment would deter the youth
from joining the forces. The fact that so many youth from here are in the
Army was evident when there were hardly any young shoulder to carry the
body of Bajinder to his house, for which one has to cover about two kilometres
distance on foot.
However, the villagers and the people
of the neighbouring area were very annoyed with the treatment meted out
to the mortal remains of the soldier.
Courtesy: The Tribune News Service
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