OP Dhankar brings soil to Dhakla village in Jhajjar. Tribune photo

Ravinder Saini

Tribune News Service

Dhakla (Jhajjar), May 3

Nearly a century after a Haryana braveheart laid down his life fighting for the British in Egypt, the soil from the grave of the World War-I hero was brought to his native village today.Agriculture and Irrigation Minister Om Prakash Dhankar brought the soil from the grave of Risaldar Badlu Ram, a recipient of the Victoria Cross, to Jhajjar this morning amid raising of patriotic slogans by locals.The soil was later taken to his native village, Dhakla, in a procession. Dhankar laid the foundation stone of the Badlu Ram Memorial as contingents of the Army and police fired a volley of shots into the air.The minister said an official delegation from the state had gone to Egypt to participate in a seminar on “Sustainable farming and water management during climate change”. “I got a chance to visit a war memorial to Indian soldiers who had sacrificed their lives during World War-I. I feel proud to have brought back a symbol of Badlu Ram from the Heliopolis War Cemetery in Cairo (Egypt),” said Dhankar.

Got Victoria Cross

• Badlu Ram was deputed as Risaldar in 14th Murray’s Jat Lancers of the British Army in Palestine during World War-1
• On September 23, 1918, his squadron came under heavy machine-gun fire from a hillock occupied by 200 infantry
• Badlu Ram and six others captured the position but was mortally wounded. He was later buried in a cemetery in Egypt and awarded Victoria Cross posthumously.