BHOPAL (Madhya Pradesh): Both pride and pain are uppermost on the minds of the families of Kargil martyrs from Madhya Pradesh, as they remember the sacrifice of their husbands and fathers in the battle that was fought from May to July 1999 in Kashmir.
A total of nine army personnel from the state laid down their lives in the Kargil War, while trying to protect their motherland. They included two Majors, three Lance Naiks, two Havaldars, one sepoy and one gunner.
On the eve of the 25th Kargil Vijay Diwas, Free Press talked with the families of some of the martyrs.
Son following in fatherís footsteps
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Vidyawati, the wife of Gunner Chhote Lal Singh from the Rewa district, was just 17 and was married for a year in July 1999. Her husband was martyred on July 13 and on August 2, she gave birth to their son. 'In his last letter, he asked me to take care of myself and to get medical check ups done regularly,' she recalls. She now lives in Satna with her daughter-in-law. Her son Amar Bahadur Singh is a Gunner in the army, currently posted in Delhi. She couldnít gather the courage to tell him about his father's martyrdom till he was six. 'He came to know about it from the villagers and since then, was insistent that he too, would join the army,' she says.
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Every knock on the door felt it was him
Lance Naik Dilip Singh Lingwal left for the front on July 9, 1999, leaving his wife Shobha, and their two sons, aged five and one, at their home in Indore. He laid down his life on July 18. 'I received a letter from him informing that he had reached his unit safely some days after getting the news of him missing in action,' she says. Dilip's body was never found. 'For several years, whenever there was a knock on the door, I felt he was back,' she says. She now works for the Indore Municipal Corporation as a chemist - a job she got as part of the compensation package. Her elder son is settled in the US and the younger one works for a private company in Hyderabad. 'It was painful. But his martyrdom is also a matter of pride for us,' she says, adding that 'Whenever there was a knock on the door, I felt it was him.'
Don't remember his face
Ankul Pandey was just one and his two sisters were toddlers when their father P Naik Kallu Prasad Pandey was killed in action at Kargil. Both his sisters are now married and he is managing a petrol pump allotted by the government to his mother Shyamali Pandey in the Rewa district. 'No, there are no financial problems. But there is this pain of not even remembering the face of my father,' he says. He has done B Com but has no plans to join the armed forces. 'I want to take care of the Petrol Pump as a memory of my father,' he says.
