Family pays tearful adieu to slain jawan
CRPF jawan Kishan Pal Singh, who lost his life in an ambush by Maoists in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh on Monday, was cremated with full honours in his paternal village Nagla Dangi in Etah on Wednesday.
Ministers SP Singh Baghel and Atul Garg, officials of CRPF, police department and the district administration also paid tribute to the martyr.
The state government has announced a financial assistance of ₹31 lakh to Singh’s family out of which a cheque of ₹25 lakh was handed over to them on Wednesday.
The martyr’s body reached Nagla Dandi on Wednesday morning. Ranveer Singh, 85, father of Kishan Pal, broke down on seeing his son’s body and was consoled by DIG, CRPF, JS Sandhu. Women from the village consoled Kishan Pal’s wife Saroj Devi. As Ranveer Singh lit the funeral pyre at 10.15 am, people shouted slogans hailing Kishan Pal’s supreme sacrifice for the country’s security.
Cabinet minister SP Singh Baghel said the cheque of ₹25 lakh had been handed over to the family. “The state government has announced the relief of ₹20 lakh for the martyr’s wife and ₹5 lakh for his father. Additional relief of ₹6 lakh from the welfare fund will also be provided to the family,” he said.
DIG, CRPF, JS Sandhu handed over ₹50,000 cash as initial relief for cremation. SSP, Etah, Satyarth Aniruddh Pankaj, district magistrate Amit Kishore and local MLA Satya Pal Singh Rathore also paid floral tribute to the CRPF head constable. The officials promised that a road would be named after the martyr and land would be identified for a cremation ground in the village.
Kishan Pal was second among five brothers. His elder brother is employed at irrigation department while his younger brothers are farmers. His father is a farmer while his mother is no more. “It was tough to believe that my brother has been killed in a Maoist attack. Initially, we did not inform our father but he became anxious when he found villagers reaching the house. When he was finally given the tragic news, he broke down,” said Kishan’s brother Devendra.
The BJP has won the NCD polls in Delhi on Wednesday, but the party will not celebrate the victory as a mark of respect to 25 CRPF troopers killed by Maoist rebels in Chhattisgarh.
“There will be no celebration...it is because of Sukma incident,” the party’s Delhi spokesperson Aman Sinha said.
The party also put up a poster outside the BJP headquarters dedicating the win to the slain CRPF jawans.
Maoists killed 25 paramilitary personnel and injured six in Chhattisgarh’s south Sukma region on Monday, in the worst attack on security forces in the state in seven years.