Missing soldier’s body found, cremated at native village

Our Correspondent

Hoshiarpur, March 25

Jasveer Singh, a soldier of 10th Battalion of Sikh Light Infantry, was cremated with Army honours at his native Ambala Jattan village near Garhdiwala. He had been missing since February 27, when he had left for home from the Indo-China border.

Army personnel of his unit who were accompanying the corpse said his body was recovered from a rivulet in Arunachal Pradesh, around 8 km from his unit’s base.

On February 27, through a call from his unit, the JCO had informed his family that he had left along with 11 other jawans, but went missing after he got down from the Army vehicle on the way to drink water. Since then, nothing was known about his whereabouts.

On Thursday, Jasveer’s body was found from the riverside near Lohit Bridge over Karauti rivulet. Jasveer’s wife Kamlesh Kumari gave birth to a girl child on March 22, the same day when Jasveer’s body was recovered. Father Hukum Chand and village sarpanch Harbhajan Singh Dhatt asked Subedar Manjit Singh, accompanying the corpse, about the conditions in which he had died but he could not explain more than what was earlier conveyed by the unit. On this, the family and other villagers got agitated and refused to cremate the body. MLA Sangat Singh Gilzian and Naib Tehsildar Mukhtiar Singh talked to the higher Army officials on phone and on the assurance by them to ensure justice and complete assistance to the family, Hukam Singh agreed to cremate the body.