Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 20: The heroics of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel have won the hearts of Shri Amarnath pilgrims, as they saved and extended helping hand to yatris at the cost of their own lives.
On June 29, Constable-cum-Carpenter Ramesh Kumar of 181 Battalion CRPF who was deployed in Baltal, saw two pilgrims, on horses, crossing a make-shift narrow wooden foot bridge fell in the glacier stream flowing below the bridge. Ramesh Kumar immediately ran towards them without caring about his life and saved their lives by pulling them out safely.
On July 16 at around 0130 hours, Constable Dharmender Kumar of 181 Battalion Coy and Quick Action Team deployed in Baltal rescued a person, who received injuries in a Maruti Swift car accident on top of the mountainous road. The injured person was shifted to hospital on an improvised stretcher which was prepared tying the snow coats which the troops were wearing.
Shiv Bahor Patel, Assistant Commandant of 54 Battalion CRPF worked proactively in establishing Medical Camp at Manigam which provided medical treatment to 3138 patients including 2626 males and 512 females. On July 2, some yatris from Gurdaspur District met with an accident at Sumbal and all of them were given free of cost medical treatment for 2 days at Manigam hospital and were safely sent back to their destination with all necessary assistance. On July 9, in another incident, a yatri bus from Ahmedabad, Gujarat went off the road near Gund. On hearing the news, Shiv Bahor Patel immediately contacted the yatris and arranged the comfortable stay of 38 yatris by providing all basic amenities for one week at Manigam base camp and also arranged transportation for their return journey.
On July 19, a yatra bus from Andhra Pradesh carrying 7 male members and 4 females arrived at Yatri Camp, Rangamore. The yatris informed SI/GD Ramanand Yadav of 54 Battalion CRPF that the person who was heading the group namely A Yashu Ratnam lost his bag having mobile phone and money to meet yatra expenses at Lal Chowk, Srinagar while shopping. Yadav informed the matter to the senior officers and on their directions, reported the matter to the police and arranged for their darshan dropping them upto Domail in CRPF vehicles. Troops in the CRPF camp contributed money and gave to him to meet the return journey expenses.
Head Constable Gyan Singh performed yatri base camp security duty at Manigam during SANJY-2017. Besides providing security and medical arrangements to the yatris, it was also reported that he along with other coy personnel arranged the stay and food arrangements for all the yatris who arrived for darshan after July 25 since by that time all bhandaras got closed at Manigam.
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