Slain Kashmiri Sikh cop second of family to die fighting militants
TEN YEARS AGO, HIS ELDEST BROTHER SAGAR SINGH HAD DIED IN A BOMB BLAST IN SRINAGAR
SRINAGAR: Indian Reserve Police head constable Anoop Singh (48), who was killed in Pulwama terror attack on Thursday, is the second member of his family to have laid down his life fighting militants in the valley.
Anoop was the youngest among four brothers, all of whom served in the police force.
Ten years ago, his eldest brother Sagar Singh had died in a bomb blast in Srinagar when the police vehicle he was travelling in to Pulwama after dropping some prisoners at the Central Jail had been hit by a remote-controlled explosion at Rainawari on December 9, 2009.
“This is a family of martyrs. Sagar was killed in an explosion a decade ago and now Anoop lost his life to a militant attack,” said a relative Veeru Singh.
His other two brothers have retired from executive police and fire services posts.
Anoop was in the 10th battalion of Indian Reserve Police and posted in Pulwama.
A resident of Pulwama’s Shadipora village, he is survived by his wife and four children – two daughters aged 22 and 18 and two sons aged 19 and 15. While his wife is a homemaker, the eldest of his daughters is in college and a son is studying in an ITI. The other two children are in school.
According to his colleagues, Anoop was quite passionate about the education of his children.
“He was very particular about the education of his children, especially his daughters. He wanted them to excel and become officers,” said one of his former colleagues.
Mourning Anoop’s demise like the other villagers, his neighbor Randeep Singh said, “He was one of the humblest persons I have ever met. He would always greet everyone with a smile and respect young and old alike.”
“People here are concerned about his children. We request the government to make arrangements for their education and employment,” he said.
Singh and one of his colleagues were injured on Thursday afternoon when suspected militants fired indiscriminately upon a joint party of security forces at a checkpoint in the Prischoo area of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district. Police said the duo was evacuated to a nearby hospital where Anoop succumbed to his injuries.