Sarore village mourns for three of its sons

SARORA (JAMMU), APRIL 28: Six-year-old Sumit's face lit up as he saw villagers swoop down at his Sarora village home. Unaware of the trage...

SARORA (JAMMU), APRIL 28: Six-year-old Sumit’s face lit up as he saw villagers swoop down at his Sarora village home. Unaware of the tragedy that had struck his family, Sumit thought the people had come to help them shift to a new home at the BSF headquarters in Paloura.

Sumit has been waiting all morning for his father who had left home on Monday to get clearance for quarters in the BSF Paloura camp, besides information about his school admission. Sumit still doesn’t know that his father, Pawan Singh, was among the jawans killed in an IED explosion by militants in R S Pura.

Unmindful of the wails which punctuate the atmosphere, Sumit is busy adjusting his new bag. A few metres away, his uncle Ramesh Singh sobs inconsolably.“Poor child is waiting for his father to take the family to a new house. He does not know that he has to spend the rest of his life without him,” cries Ramesh. Looking at his wailing uncle, Sumit ponders for a while before he starts rummaging through his books again.

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Outside the house, villagers are pouring in large numbers. Constable Pawan Singh (31) died with four other colleagues in a mine blast at the International Border in Gharana sector in R S Pura on Tuesday. The gypsy they were travelling in was blown to pieces and their bodies thrown metres away.

Sitting in a corner at a house a few metres away from Pawan’s residence, is Jyoti, wife of Shamsher Singh, another jawan killed in the explosion. Jyoti holds her eight-month-old baby in her lap and wails, “Bhairya meinoo tera kujh wi nahin chahida, bus kisi tarah to waapis aaja (I don’t need anything, somehow you come back)."

“When the village numberdar informed me about my brother’s death, I was dumbstruck, not knowing how to pass on the news to my bhabhi,” says Madan Saini, Shamsher’s elder brother.

The mother of another constable, Ashok Kumar, asks every visitor what will happen to his two-month-old baby. “Mere puttar ne hale is garib da naamkaram wi nahin kita si (My son has not even named his child and this tragedy has struck us),” she says.

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At Paloura, Saini recalled how during a clear winter day on December 8, 1990, all three — Pawan, Ashok and Shamsher — held each other’s hand after coming out of the Paloura ground, jubilant over their selection into BSF.

Saini says,“What an irony that this time also I am waiting outside Paloura ground, but to receive the bodies of the trio that will be arriving after the post-mortem.

“Since childhood, they were good friends. Not only were they recruited on the same day, but they also kept their friendship in death,” Saini adds in a choked voice before boarding a jonga in which the bodies were being taken to their native place for the last rites.