K Sandeep Kumar and Hemendra Chaturvedi

letters@hindustantimes.com

Prayagraj/Agra/Bharatpur/Bhagalpur : Sanju Devi, a 24-year-old widow in Tudihar Badal-Ka-Purwa village of Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj district, breaks down each time someone mentions her late husband Mahesh Kumar.

Kumar, a trooper with the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), was one of the 40 personnel killed in the Pulwama terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir on this day a year ago.

Devi claims that many political leaders have visited her home to commiserate with her, but have done little to help her struggling family.

“The incident left us devastated. My two sons Samar, 6, and Sahil, 5, are school- going but the promise of financial support for their education is yet to come. So I am teaching in a small school and meeting the expenses of their education,” said Devi.

Looking at the stone chips spread outside the house of her in-laws, Devi recalled the promises of a concrete road, a park and memorial in her husband’s name, none of which, she claimed, have materialised.

Responsibility for the suicide car bombing in Pulwama on a CRPF truck was claimed by the Jaish-e-Mohammed and sparked retaliatory air strikes by India on a JeM camp in Pakistan and pushed the subcontinental rivals to the brink of an armed conflict. Victims of the terror attack were hailed as martyrs.

“I wanted a small function to mark the day of my husband’s martyrdom but the memorial and the park are yet to come up. So we plan to offer floral tributes to his photograph and remember him,” Devi said. Kumar’s mother Shanti Devi, 43, said the government job promised for her younger son Amresh hasn’t materialised either. “He has completed his graduation and is unemployed. Neither my husband nor I get any pension,” she added. The promises of 1.5 acres of land and a gate to honour Kumar have also not been fulfilled.

The story is repeated by families of many of the 40 men killed in what was Kashmir’s deadliest single terror attack in three decades of militancy. Some families are still awaiting promised jobs after losing their sole earners. Little has been done to honour the sacrifice of the men, they complain.

In Agra, the family of Kaushal Kumar Rawat say they did receive the ₹25 lakh promised by the state government; a job that was offered to the family was put on hold as the younger son, Vikas, is yet to graduate. Even so, the family is upset. The reason: a local memorial misspells Rawat’s name, which is engraved in small font and is dwarfed by the names of the panchayat chief and other leaders, spelt out in larger lettering.

“Local leaders have insulted the name of my husband by mentioning his name in small,” said his wife Mamta Rawat.

In Bihar’s Bhagalpur, Ram Niranjan Thakur, father of the late Ratan Kumar Thakur,is upset that a gate in the honour of his son is far from being completed. The family has received financial assistance, and his younger son has a job in the Panchayati Raj department but the promise of an apartment is yet to be kept.

The family of CRPF trooper Jeetram Gurjar in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur received ₹25 lakh from state and CRPF but is awaiting a government job . “Two Rajasthan ministers said the government school in the village will be named after Jeetram but the promise remains unfulfilled,” said his father Radhe Shyam.

However, some families are happy with what they received. In Uttar Pradesh’s Shamli district, Naveen Kumar, the brother of CRPF trooper Pradeep Kumar, said the state government and the CRPF stayed true to their word.

“The state government disbursed ex gratia of ₹20 lakh and all dues and pensions were cleared by CRPF,” said Naveen Kumar, a resident of UP’s Shamli district. Pradeep Kumar’s son Siddharth is only 18 and in college. An extension of three years has been sought for him to apply for a job on compassionate grounds.

(with inputs from Suresh Foujdar, S Raju, Avijit Biswas)

Rupnagar : Life has been one long, lonely battle for parents of CRPF constable Kulwinder Singh, 26, of Rauli village near Nurpur Bedi in the district. Kulwinder was the only son of Darshan Singh and Amarjit Kaur and loneliness is what has come to define their lives since the attack. An occasional visit from relatives in the village brings them some respite from the grief.

The state government fulfilled some promises it made like providing them a monthly pension of ₹10,000 and naming the Government Middle School of the village after Kulwinder.Other promises remain unmet.

A still inconsolable Darshan says, “The government has not constructed a gate and a 18-foot wide road from our village to Mothapir in the memory of my son. We have also not been given free electricity as promised.” The proud father also resents being made to stand in queues in government offices. Deputy commissioner Sonali Giri said that demand for the construction of a gate and a 18-foot wide road in the memory of Kulwinder would be met soon. “Necessary approvals for this are in place,” she said, adding that a cheque of ₹2.5 lakh had been given to Darshan for the development of a playground in the memory of his son.

— Bahadurjeet Singh

Tarn Taran CRPF man’s kin await relief, debt waiver

TARN TARAN : Family members of head constable Sukhjinder Singh, 32, who was among the 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel killed in the terror attack in Pulwama district of the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) on February 14 last year, are awaiting compensation and loan waiver announced by the Punjab government.

Sukhjinder’s widow Sarabjit Kaur, 28, said has been offered a job of a peon by the Punjab government, but she is not willing to accept it.

Sukhjinder, who joined the CRPF in 2003, was due to retire in 2022 and had planned to settle in Canada with his wife and son.

The family will commemorate his first death anniversary at a gurdwara in his native Gandiwind village falling under Patti sub-division on Friday.

“The government has forgotten his sacrifice,” said Sukhjinder’s 60-year-old father Gurmej Singh. “The government promised ₹12 lakh compensation and a Punjab minister gave us a cheque for ₹5 lakh to us soon after my son’s death. But, we are still waiting for the remaining amount,” he added. “The government also promised to waive ₹2.5 lakh farm loan, but nothing has been done so far,” said Sukhjinder’s elder brother Gurjant Singh.

—Anil Sharma

Moga hero’s son wants to don stars on his shoulders

MOGA : Gurparkash, the six-year-old son of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) head constable Jaimal Singh, who was killed in the Pulwama terror attack last year, is waiting for his father to return.

Jaimal, 44, who belonged to Ghalauti village in Moga district, joined the CRPF in 1993 and visited the family on January 28, 2019, last time. He was driving the CRPF bus that was blown up by terrorists.

His wife Sukhjit Kaur said they were blessed with a son 16 years after their marriage. “As Jaimal couldn’t study in a good school, he wanted his son to get the best of education,” she said. Gurprakash wants to fulfil his father’s dream and become an officer.

“He is studying in Class 1 at a private school in Panchkula and the principal has promised to provide free education to him till Class 12. He is dreaming of donning stars on his shoulders,” said Sukhjit. Recalling her last conversation with Jaimal, Sukhjit said: “He told me that he was filling in for another driver who was on leave for his son’s wedding. He said he will call back. That call never came,” the slain trooper’s wife said.

The government promised monetary aid of ₹12 lakh to the family, but has only given ₹7 lakh to date.

—Parteek Singh Mahal

 

HT Correspondent

letterschd@hindustantimes.com

CHANDIGARH : Two Indian soldiers, who went missing in the Mushkoh Valley during the Kargil conflict in September 1999, were captured by Pakistani forces and then tortured to turn them into ‘assets’ to spy on their own country.

The claim has been made in a book titled “Missing in Action: The Prisoners who Never Came Back’’ that narrates the physical and mental torment the two men of the 108 Engineer Regiment — Bathinda native Jagseer Singh and Meerut’s Arif Mohammad Khan—underwent before being given training on espionage and forced to convert to Islam by Pakistan.

Authored by senior journalist Chander Suta Dogra, the book tells how the two were declared deserters by the army and their cases were never taken up properly by the Indian government, with their families leaving all hopes of the return of the missing men.

In Pakistan, the book claims, the two were first taken to the army unit deployed close to the LoC and subjected to third-degree torture before being sent to Chaklala and Rawalpindi. They were put through four stages of indoctrination followed by Mutt and Jeff interrogation techniques, it is claimed.

Then they were given the task of opening civil canteens in the Suratgarh, Lalgarh Jattan, Ganganagar and Bathinda cantonments and to collect intelligence which was to be passed on to Pakistani agents in New Delhi. Funds were to come from Pakistan to their families.

Pakistan kept on denying having any Indian soldiers in its custody.

Meanwhile, Arif’s wife Gudiya got remarried and was pregnant with her second husband’s child till the issue of two missing soldiers cropped up in the media in 2003 when he managed to write a letter to his family that he was in Pakistan Army’s custody.

India then strongly took up the issue with Pakistan, which in 2004 agreed to release the two in exchange of release of a Pakistani soldier captured near the Line of Control (LoC) in 2002 and two civilians.

The two soldiers landed in India via the Wagah border in 2004 and the army intelligence kept them at the military hospital in Amritsar for debriefing.

The book claims the army’s intensive debriefing was intended to find out if theirs was an intentionally executed desertion or an inadvertent straying across the LoC. But intelligence sleuths found Jagseer’s behavior suspicious as he wore a white skull cap and offered namaz five times a day.

The soldiers seemed sullen and refused to talk for the first two days, the author claims quoting some officials.

But then the intelligence team befriended them and after a month they narrated the psychological exploitation, indoctrination and inhuman treatment they faced over five years meted by Pakistan to them turn into spies.

Col Bipin Pathak (retd), who had debriefed the two, is quoted in the book saying, “The two harboured a deep anger towards the army and India for letting them down as deserters. They had been told that if they went back to their units, they will be shot dead or thrown into jail.”

Col Pathak is quoted as saying the army sent them to their units from where they retired. Jagseer later joined the Punjab Police and also worked in the security of now state finance minister Manpreet Badal.

With a foreword by General VP Malik (retd), former chief of army staff, the book also carries stories of Major AK Suri, who came alive five years after he was declared dead and how Indian intelligence deduced that Flight Lieutenant TS Dandoss was not killed in an air crash but was secretly detained by Pakistan.