Shaheed Naik Raj Kumar Punia
Shaheed Naik Raj Kumar Punia
NAIK
RAJ KUMAR PUNIA, 23
18 Grenadiers
Desert Warrior
MISSION:
Punia was part of a frontal attack stalled by a machine-gun nest. While
crawling up he was hit, but before he died he hurled a grenade and silenced
the nest.
Grieving Family members of Shaheed Raj Kumar Punia
Like all little
boys, Punia spent his childhood listening enraptured to the tales that
soldiers from his prosperous Jat village, Bhensali in Rajasthan, brought
with them on their visits home. So, as soon as he turned 18, Punia dropped
out of high school and signed up, ignoring the entreaties of his elder
brother -- a havaldar with 8 Jat Regiment -- to get an education.
Punia became
a fearless soldier, volunteering to fight terrorists in Kashmir. At home,
villagers recall how he always craved for a war and to defeat Pakistan.
That bravado always shook his gentle mother, Chandro. "The bullet made
for me will take my life," he told her. "No one can help me then." Prescience?
Perhaps. A single
bullet pierced his temple and killed Punia on May 24, but not before he
saved his comrades high in the mountains in a lonely place they call point
4590 on Tololing's saddle. Part of a frontal assault wave against intruders
entrenched in bunkers, Punia saw two of his buddies fall and the rest pinned
down by a machine-gun nest. Inching his way along a rock face where a fall
meant instant death, Punia was hit in the chest. Blood oozing out, he reached
for a grenade and silenced the nest. The gun position came alive a few
hours later, but it gave his unit time to escape. Today, point 4590 is
back in Indian hands.
Sacrifice is
almost a tradition in the region, known for the valour of its soldiers.
The country's first Param Vir Chakra in the 1948 war went to Beri village,
just 2 km from Bhensali.
Youngest among
his three brothers and two sisters Punia, all of 6 ft 2 inches, was known
for his sense of humour and devotion to community, pitching in to build
additions to the village high school while on leave. Punia was also fond
of playing cricket and basketball and named his only son, Sachin Kumar,
now one-and-a-half- years-old, after Sachin Tendulkar. His widow Sumitra,
19, also from a family of soldiers, refuses to shed a tear as she looks
forward to driving a tractor in the fields. "She is now my son," says Chandro.
In this ancient land, death is a time for grief, but it's no more than
a hiccup on the road to honour.
Rohit Parihar
Courtesy:
INDIA TODAY
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