PATNA, Sept 19: Four of the 18 jawans martyred in fidayeen attack at the Uri Army base in Jammu and Kashmir were from Bihar and 16 slain soldiers belonged to the 6th battalion of Bihar Regiment Centre (BRC).
Seven bodies of the martyred jawans, three from Bihar and two each from Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, reached Varanasi in an AN 32 aircraft of Indian Air Force from where their coffins were being carried for the last journey.
Bodies of Havildar Ashok Kumar, Sepoy Rakesh Singh, Naik S K Vidyarthi (from Bihar), Sepoy Javra Munda and Naiman Kujur (from Jharkhand) and Ganesh Shankar and Harinder Yadav from Uttar Pradesh were received at the airport by Brig N Rajkumar and a host of Army officers and soldiers.
After giving them a guard of honour, coffins of the slain soldiers wrapped in the Tricolour were kept on flower-bedecked army trucks before they headed for their respective villages. Friends, relatives and a large number of people bade a tearful farewell to the slain soldiers.
A Deputy Commandant rank officer along with jawans of BRC accompanied each body in the last journey of the dead jawans to their respective villages. “We salute the martyrs! this is the hallmark of Indian soldier. We pay our heartfelt condolences to the families of martyrs who laid down their lives in the line of duty,” Brig Raj Kumar said.
Formed in 1941, while regularising the 11th(territorial) battalion, 19th Hyderabad regiment and raising new battalion, the Bihar Regimental Centre is one of the most revered infantry units with its headquarters in Danapur,about 15 kms west of the State capital, Patna. BRC’s jawans and officers had played a stellar role in the 1999 Kargil war.
The regiment has a stellar history of service resulting in decorations such as the Maha Vir Chakra,Vir Chakra and Ashok Chakra to its personnel. The BRC saw action in the Burma campaign and during the Indo-Pak war in 1965 it captured Bedori, paving the way to regain Haji Pir pass.
Again in 1971 India-Pakistan war, it captured Akhaura and was later conferred the honour of ‘East Pakistan’ for its achievement. Five soldiers of 21st battalion BRC were martyred on August 6, 2013, in an attack by Pakistani intruders on an Indian Army post at Chakkan da Bagh along the Line of Control (LoC).
“Narendra Modi ji, give a befitting reply to Pakistan,” this is how the teenager daughter of slain Army jawan Sunil Kumar Vidyarthi reacted to the killing of her father.
Crying inconsolably as tears rolls down from her cheeks before soaking into her clothes, the 13 year old daughter Aarti Kumari of slain Lance Naik checked her emotions for a while and told newspersons at her residence that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should give a befitting reply to Pakistan for its state sponsored terrorism. (Modi Ji, Pakistan Ko Eit ka Jawab Patthar se de).
Her mother Kiran Devi, who like her daughter was is waiting for the arrival of body of her martyred husband from Jammu and Kashmir reacted in the same vein, “Government at least should now not restrain security personnel and give them a free hand to teach a good lesson to perpetrators of violence”.
The martyred jawan is a native of Boknari village under Paraiya police station area in Gaya district where a pall of gloom has descended.
Sunil Kumar Vidyarthi had joined the 06 battallion of Indian Army on October 10, 1998 and his first posting was in Danapur. He was married to Kiran Devi from Paharpur village in 2000. He was the second son of Mathura Yadav and Kunti Devi‘s three sons.
“Eliminate the enemies first then talk,” father of slain Indian soldier Gangadhar Dolui, said reacting to death of his son at Uri in Kashmir while speaking at Howrah in West Bengal.
Father Onkar Dolui reacting to the news of his son death, told mediapersons “If we do not eliminate the killers right now then many more lives to fall by the attack of the enemies.”
The resident of Jagatball-avpur village in Howrah district Onkar Dolui at his early 60s said he first did not believe that his son fell to sudden attacks by the terrorists. “But now I believe that my Gangadhar is no more, but now we should not delay further to eliminate the killers or else many lives like my son would fall soon, he added.”
Besides Sepoy Gangadhar Dolui of Howrah district, Sepoy Biswajit Ghorai fromSagar Island in West Bengal’s South 24 parganas district among others 18 Army personnel sacrificed their lives in Uri attack on Sunday morning.
Thakurlal Dolui, the uncle of Gangadhar and Sujit Maity, the former teacher of the slain soldier, echoed of Onkar Dolui saying the Indian Government should strike hard into the dens of country’s enemy in Kashmir and elsewhere.
A special aircraft of IAF will carry the mortal remains of Sepoy Gangadhar Dalui Sepoy Biswajit Ghorai and land at the Dum Dum airport around at 2000 hrs today.
The mortal remains to be kept at the Army Command hospital morgue here in South Kolkata for the night and tomorrow they will be taken to Howrah and Sagar Island respectively, where their final journey will be performed with State honours and gun salute.
Meanwhile, the mortal remains of Havaldar NS Rawat, killed in the Uri terror attack, were today received by the local Army unit, family members and representatives of the civil administration at Udaipur, Rajasthan.
The mortal remains of the martyr were received at around 4.15 pm and after a wreath-laying ceremony, they were dispatched to his native Rajva village in Rajsamand district by road, a defence spokesperson said.
The last rites will be performed tomorrow at Rajva.
Rawat, who attained martyrdom in the deadly terrorist attack yesterday at Uri in Jammu and Kashmir’s Baramulla district, is survived by wife Rodi Devi, four daughters — Payal, Deepa, Lata, Asha — and son Chandan Singh.
Rajasthan Public Works Department Minister Kiran Maheshwari visited the home of the martyr at his native village and consoled the bereaved family members.
She also monitored the arrangements for Rawat’s funeral to be held tomorrow.
Meanwhile, the bodies of three martyred Army soldiers from Maharashtra, Lance Naik Chandrakatnt Shankar Galande, Sepoy T S Somnath and Uike Janrao, killed in yesterday’s terror attack in Kashmir, were brought to Nashik from Delhi this evening.
A special aircraft of Indian Air Force (IAF) carrying the bodies of three martyred soldiers from Maharashtra arrived at Ojhar airport of Air Force, near Nashik, this evening at 1900 hours.
Later, the bodies of Galande, Uike and Somnath were kept in mortuary of Nashik airport.
The body of Galande will be taken to his native village Jashi in Maan taluka of Satara district in western Maharashtra tomorrow morning. State funerals will be accorded to all these martyred soldiers, the sources in Defence establishment here said.
Chandrakant Galande was 27 years old and is survived by his wife as well as two small sons — Shryash who is two and half years and his younger son Jay is just ten-month-old.
Meanwhile, thousands of villagers gathered at the house of Galandes to pay homage to the departed soul of the village boy.
According to the members of Galande family, Chandrakant’s wife is in a state of shock and admitted in a private hospital after hearing the devastating news of her husband’s death.
Chandrakant was supposed to come home for the birthday of his younger son, who will be completing one year in November, family friends said.
Chandrakant has two more brothers who are also in Army. He was the youngest. He was grown in a poor farmer family at Jashi village in Maan taluka, which is known as most drought affected area in state.
Chandrakant’s father, Shankar Gavande, had decided to send all his three sons into the army. The bright days were returning in the life of Shankar when all his three sons joined the Army and they were taking care of their parent. But suddenly, the death of his youngest son in terrorist attack in Uri sector of Kashmir has shattered him.
The martyr’s father has demanded that the Government should not spare the culprits who had taken the life of his youngest son and given him such days.
Meanwhile, a report from Nashik said that, the mortal remains of martyred soldier Sandeep Somnath Thok were later taken to his native place at Khadangali village in Sinnar taluka of Nashik district.
A special IAF plane with the mortal remains of martyrs Sandeep Thok of Nashik, Uike Janrao of Nandgaon village in Amravati and Lance Naik Chandrakant Gavane of Jashi village in Satara district, landed at Ojhar Air Force station in Nashik on today evening.
Top officers of Army, Air Force and other government officers paid homage to mortal remains of martyred soldier Sandeep Thok. Brid S K Dey, Station commander Group Captain P K Anand, District Guardian Minister Girish Mahajan, MLAs Devyani Pharande, Balasaheb Sanap, Jayant Jadhav, Anil Kadam, district collector Radhakrishanan Band, police officers paid homage to the mortal remains of both the martyred soldiers.
Sandeep along with 17 soldiers was martyred and 19 others injured when terrorists attacked their Army camp near the 12th Brigade headquarters at Uri in Baramulla district yesterday. The cremation of all the three martyrs will be held in their respective villages tomorrow. (Agencies)
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