Coffins reach home, anger soars
Twelveyear-old Sahildeep Singh was a picture of grief and resolve as he stood saluting his father’s bravery with tears rolling down his cheeks.
“I am proud of my father. I will also join the Indian Army,” Sahildeep said as he lit the pyre of his father, Naib Subedar Paramjit Singh, who was killed and beheaded by Pakistani intruders along the Line of Control in Poonch on Monday.
The funeral of the Naib Subedar was attended by at least one member from every household in this village of 45,000. The family’s grief gave way to anger when Singh’s wife Paramjit Kaur insisted that she be allowed to have one last look at her husband, whose body was wrapped in the tricolour. When she saw the headless body, she demanded that the Indian government give Pakistan a befitting reply for the barbaric act. “I am proud that my husband sacrificed his life for the nation, but it is very painful to see the way his body has been mutilated. There is no head,” she said.
Sahildeep and his twin sister Khushdeep Kaur were in tears as their elder sibling, 15-year-old Simerdeep Kaur said, “My father has held our head high. He was to come on leave on May 10… I was eagerly waiting for him. I met him six months ago. I didn’t know it was the last time I would be seeing him.” The villagers who gath- ered for the cremation also raised anti-Pakistan slogans.
The body was brought to the village around noon in an Indian Army chopper. It was taken to the new house Singh was building. There was a commotion as Paramjit Kaur and her brother Ranjit Singh, along with other villagers, demanded that they be shown the body. Representatives of the army and civil administration, however, convinced them to head for the cremation.
Meanwhile, Tarn Taran deputy commisioner DPS Kharbanda said the Punjab government will give ₹13 lakh to the family of which ₹6 lakh was handed over on Tuesday. Khadoor Sahib Congress MLA Ramanjit Singh Sikki, Tarn Taran Congress MLA Dharambir Agnihotri and other leaders were also present.