Capt Amarinder Singh cleans the statue of martyr Nand Singh at Fauji Chowk in Bathinda on Wednesday. Tribune photo: Pawan sharma

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, October 19

Bahadurpur, a village near Bareta town of Mansa district, is still longing for the statue of naib subedar Nand Singh, the lone winner of the twin bravery awards of Victoria Cross and Maha Vir Chakra.The demand for an entry gate in the name of this great martyr is still awaiting approval.“At the age of 33, Nand Singh, a loyal solider of the Indian Army (by then, a jemadar, who was not even required to go into the battle) chose to lead his platoon of D Coy in a desperate but successful attack to rescue his battalion from an ambush in Uri in Kashmir in December 1947. He was killed in action but his body was never recovered,” mentions former chief minister and Member of Parliament Captain Amarinder Singh in his book ‘Lest We Forget’.In 1944, as jemadar in the British Indian Army, Nand Singh received its highest military honour — Victoria Cross — for his bravery against the Japanese forces on the Arakan front in Burma during the World War-2.On March 12, 1944 on the Maungdaw-Buthidaung Road, Burma (now Myanmar), naik Nand Singh, commanding a leading section of the attack, was ordered to recapture a position gained by the enemy.He led his section up a very steep knife-edged ridge under heavy machine-gun and rifle fire and although wounded in the thigh, captured the first trench.He then crawled forward alone and wounded again in the face and shoulder, nevertheless captured the second and third trenches.On December 12, 1947 he laid down his life fighting Pakistani intruders in Jammu and Kashmir.Captain Amarinder Singh, who himself hails from the 1st Sikh regiment, had mentioned a detailed story on Nand Singh (September 24, 1914 –December 12, 1947) and recalls that it was later discovered that the Pakistanis recognised Singh because of his decorated VC ribbon and took his body to Muzaffarabad, where, in the most abominable manner, “it was tied spread-eagled on a truck and paraded through the city with a loudspeaker proclaiming that this would be the fate of every Indian VC”.Nand Singh’s body was later thrown onto a garbage dump, an emotional Captain Amarinder recalled, lamenting that the state government had failed to take care of the statue of this great soldier of the Indian soil, even though it was located on the “Badals’ own turf”.Captain Amarinder Singh was here to clean the statue of the martyr.Gurpreet Singh, member of panchayat and cousin grandson of the martyr at Bahadurpur village regretted that the state government had not only forgotten his family and the village but even failed to meet the demand of the villagers to set up an entry gate in the name of the great soldier. “The gate at the entry is our demand and Rs 10 lakh has been approved for it but not even a single brick has been laid. We were informed by senior officials of the Army that a statue of this great martyr was made but they were yet to get any space and approval for installation. We demanded that the statue should be installed at Bareta Kainchiyan but the administration is yet to approve space for installation,” he said.“Nand Singh and his four brothers — Chanda Singh, Dhanna Singh, Arjan Singh and Sarwan Singh —were sons of Bhag Singh,” he added.