THE COFFINS OF FIVE MARTYRED BRAVEHEARTS OF GARHWAL RIFLES ARRIVED AT JOLLY GRANT AIRPORT, GIVEN EMOTIONAL ADIEU , JAI HIND !
The coffin of the five bravehearts draped in national tricolour reached the Jolly Grant Airport at Rishikesh, Garhwal, Uttarakhand on Tuesday evening where the martyrs were given respectful adieu by laying wreaths on their coffin by the chief minister of Uttarakhand Pushkar Singh Dhami, The Haridwar Member of Parliament Trivendra Singh Rawat, The Rishikesh MLA, minister Prem Chandra Aggarwal and cabinet minister Agriculture Ganesh Joshi amid tears with full military honours.
After the wreath laying condolence adieu the coffins of the martyrs were taken separately to different locations to hand them over to their bereaved family members for consigning them to flames near their respective village crematoriums by the Army personnel with full state honours.
All the five martyred soldiers of Garhwal Rifles regiment were from Garhwal Uttarakhand viz Main Subedar Anand Singh Rawat ( JCO) from Rudraprayag, Naik Vinod Singh and Rifleman Adarsh Negi from Tehri, Garhwal, Havildar Kamal Singh and Rifleman Anuj Negi from Pauri Garhwal.
Five soldiers injured during this ambush are being treated at Pathankot Hospital. The terror ambush occured at around 3.30 PM at the bend of Machedi Kindli Malhar Road in Kathua district.
According to news reports the terrorists likely a group of three took cover in a thick foliage on the hills to surprise the troops with grenades and gunfire.
The family backgrounds of these five martyrs are extremely compassionate who were the sole bread earners for their families.
Rifleman Anuj Negi one of the martyrs who lost his precious life just at the age of 25 having literally seen nothing in the world hails from Dobariya village in Pauri Garhwal district being the sole bread earner for his family with his father aged 50 years being a daily wage earner in forest department.
The saddest and shocking part of late Anuj Negi’s story is that his wife who got nuptially tied up with him in November last is two month’s pregnant.
Anuj had joined the Garhwal Rifles six years ago with the sole purpose to support his family financially and also to serve the nation, but never knew that so bad was stored for him in the destiny.
As a dedicated and devoted family head, he was planning to marry his sister in the near future. Now his village folks have taken the entire responsibility on their shoulders to deliver a healthy baby and look after the family in whatever best way they can reveal sources.
Another Braveheart Adarsh Negi, just 26 years old had joined Garhwal Rifles to help his family financially as well as to serve the country fighting enemy forces. He was the student of BSC 2 nd year in HNB Garhwal University when he qualified the Army exam. Though a brilliant student he preferred to give up his academic career in between to join the Garhwal Rifles having qualified it. Hailing from Thathi Dagar Village, Tehri Garhwal, Uttarakhand 26 years old Adarsh Negi , a handsome brave young recruit was the youngest after his brother and sister. His brother worked in a local restaurant while his father was a farmer. He was warmly loved by his villagers and had visited it in April. Though the entire village is in tears losing this Braveheart the youths feel highly inspired by his supreme Sacrifice in the line of duty fighting the dreaded terrorists.
Another martyr, Braveheart Kamal Singh Rawat was from Papri village of Pauri Garhwal . He was 28 years old and concerned about the eduction of his two daughters merely aged 3 n 5 years, one in class KG n another in class 1 st. It was because of his hearty desire to render best of education to his daughters that he had shifted to Kotdwar from his village. But all hope dashed as he became the target of the terror ambush not knowing that cruel hands of destiny will snatch him away from this world so expeditiously.
The Junior Commanding Officer Naib Subedar Anand Singh Rawat who was leading the convoy was 41 years old. He was from Kanda Bhardar Village in Rudraprayag. He had shifted to Dehradun to render best of education to his two daughters aged 13 and 15 years. The family is in tears and immense shock not to know how to come out of this hard hitting trauma.
Meanwhile, while the chief minister of Uttarakhand Pushkar Singh Dhami has termed this terror ambush as an cowardly act by the Pak backed terrorists pledging to stand with the martyred family to help support them to the maximum the Congress leader and leader of the opposition Rahul Gandhi also paid his deepest condolences but came down heavily on the ruling party political dispensation saying that this is a lack of seriousness and the Congress demands a statement from the PMO as it was unacceptable since they keep quite on such a big incident.
The leader of the opposition write on X : The news of the terrorist attack on Indian Army vehicle in Kathua, Jammu and Kashmir is extremely sad. While paying my emotional tribute to the martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the motherland, I express my deepest condolences to the bereaved families. I pray for the speedy recovery of the injured soldiers. These cowardly attacks on our army are highly condemnable. The fifth terrorist attack within a month is a grave blow to the security of the country and the lives of our soldiers. The solution to the relentless terror attacks will come from strong action, not from hollow speeches and false promises. We stand firmly with the country in this hour of grief.
