“I would like to appeal to the government that if they want to get Kashmir separated from India, fulfill their aspiration. Why are you getting sons of others killed? You are sitting on the chairs (power) and have no concern about the life of others’ sons. Bother their life a bit. They are also sons of any mother. These sons are dying frequently, but you don’t care”.
These are the words uttered by the newly married grieving wife of Sikh soldier Gajjan Singh who was deployed by the Indian army in insurgency-hit Jammu and Kashmir and killed on October 11 in an encounter with militants in Poonch district.
Harpreet Kaur added, “However, the governments does not listen to us. They only want chairs (power), nothing else”, The Sikh Narrative reported.
“I am very proud of his sacrifice. He often shared his wish to attain martyrdom. On hearing these words, I used to ask him to transfer his duty to a safe place. But he was adamant to make the sacrifice. He told me that I would be proud of him. I did not know he would leave us”, she said while speaking to the media, a pall of gloom descended on the Pachranda village in Ropar district of Punjab.
Gajjan Singh was the youngest among four sons of Charan Singh. He was the first person in the farmer family to join the forces six years ago. His father and three brothers still work as farmers on their small landholding.
He tied knots with Harpreet Kaur in February this year. Pertinently, the farmers’ protest against the three agricultural laws was at its peak at that time. Pained to see the plight of his brethren squatting on roads during winter, Gajjan expressed his solidarity with the protesting farmers, carriyng the flag of the Kirti Kisan Morcha.
Moreover, he also walked around the village with his newlywed wife immediately after returning home with the marriage party to register his protest against the farm laws, said the villagers.
He is among five soldiers killed in the encounter. Four of them are Sikhs. Few days ago, a Sikh Principal Sapinder Kaur was allegedly killed by militants in a school of Srinagar.
Prior to this, four Sikh farmers who were protesting against the laws, were mowed down by the son of Union Minister of India Ajay Mishra Teni in Lakhimpur Kheri district of BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh. Thus, the Sikhs who are a small minority in India, are being killed in this country.