Thousands bid tearful adieu to martyred soldiers
19 Jun 2020 00:27:21
Family members pay their respects to the mortal remains of Colonel Santosh Babu during his last rites at his residence in Suryapet, Telangana on Thursday. (Right) Army personnel handover the Tricolor to family members of Havaldar Palani during his last rites in Ramanathapuram on Thursday. (PTI)
NEW DELHI ;
FIVE of the 20 Indian soldiers, including a Colonel, who died fighting Chinese troops in Ladakh, were laid to rest at their native places on Thursday amid patriotic slogans, gun salutes and barely held back tears. The Indian Army personnel were killed in a fierce clash with Chinese soldiers in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night. Several leaders across the country also paid tributes to the 20 soldiers -- five from Bihar, four from Punjab, two each from Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal, and one each from Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Telangana. The mortal remains of Colonel Bikkumalla Santosh Babu were consigned to the flames with full military honours in Suryapet in Telangana, amid chants of ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ and ‘Santosh Babu amar rahe’. Babu’s last rites were performed by his father on a piece of land owned by his family.
The colonel is survived by his wife, daughter and son. Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan and State Ministers K T Rama Rao, Malla Reddy and Jagdish Reddy paid their tributes, In Tamil Nadu, Havildar K Palani was laid to rest in Kadakkalur village, as scores of people, including family members, bid him a tearful adieu. Palani’s minor son performed the last rites. A gun salute was accorded to the slain soldier before his mortal remains were buried at Kadakkalur village in the district, as scores of people including family members bid a tearful adieu to Palani who had made the supreme sacrifice on Monday.
At Suryapet, Telangana Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan, State Ministers K T Rama Rao, Malla Reddy, Jagdish Reddy, Cyberabad Police Commissioner VC Sajjanar, Hyderabad City Police Commissioner Anjani Kumarand other Army officials paid their tributes at the Air Force station. Colonel Santosh’s body was draped in tricolour and a large number of people paid their last respects to him here. Officials from the Armed Forces, the District Collector, police personnel and elected representatives paid tributes and placed wreaths before the casket carrying the mortal remains of Palani. Officials later handed over the Indian tricolour, wrapped on the casket, to the family members of the departed prior to the burial. Meanwhile, Jharkhand plunged into grief on Wednesday as the violent face-off between Indian and Chinese troops in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley stripped the State of two its bravehearts -- Kundan Kumar Ojha and Ganesh Hansda. Ojha, blessed with a daughter just 17 days ago, had promised his mother over the phone that he would be home as soon as he got leave from duty.
That was the last the family heard from the 28-year-old soldier. He and Hansda were among the 20 Army personnel killed in a fierce clash with Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh’s Galwan Valley on Monday night. The second of the four children of farmer Ravi Shankar Ojha and Bhawani Devi from Dihari village in Sahibganj district, Ojha had joined the Army in 2011. He had tied the knot a year-and-a-half ago. “‘Abhi to Ladakh mein banni, aur chhuti mili taab betiki dekhe aai’ (I am in Ladakh now, will come as soon as I get leave),” were his final few words to Bhawani Devi on June 7, the braveheart’s cousin Prabhat Kumar said. Ganesh Hansda had joined the Army in 2018 at the age of 21 years. His first posting was in Ladakh, the slain soldier’s elder brother Dinesh said.
“We got information about his martyrdom on Tuesday night over the phone from the headquarters... We are filled with grief but very proud that he sacrificed his life for the country,” he said. A resident of Kosaphalia village in Bahrahgora block of East Singhbhum, Hansda was the younger child of Sukhda and Kapra. Similarly, Grief and anger marked the mood in two villages of West Bengal, the residents of which are waiting patiently for the bodies of their two fallen heroes to return from the icy heights of Ladakh’s Galwan Valley. The bodies of the two soldiers from West Bengal, who were among the 20 Indian Army personnel killed in a clash with Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh’s Galwan Valley, are scheduled to arrive at their homes on Thursday evening, an Army spokesperson said here.
Women in Havildar Bipul Roy’s Bindipara village in Alipurduar district have abstained from cooking food in remembrance of their beloved son. Roy’s body will be flown to the Bagdogra Airport near Siliguri, from where the coffin will be brought to Bindipara by road, the Army spokesperson said. Hundreds of kilometres away, in Sepoy Rajesh Orang’s Belgoria village in Birbhum district, people from near and far have thronged the slain soldier’s hutment to pay their tributes. The casket carrying his body will reach the Panagarh Air Force base in West Burdwan district in a military aircraft in the afternoon and will then be taken to Belgoria by road, the officer said. Members of Orang’s family were too grief-stricken to only say that State Minister Ashish Banerjee had visited them in the morning to convey his condolences.