Fighting grief, 1965 war widow takes life in her stride

Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 22

It was over five months after her husband had laid down his life in the line of duty 50 years ago that the family was finally able to cremate his mortal remains – and the day happened to be her wedding anniversary. Thereafter began a story of winning a battle against grief and personal difficulties and taking life forward.

Lt Ajit Singh of the Fourth Battalion of the Sikh Regiment was killed in the battle of Khem Karan on September 12, 1965, when he was just 27 years old, leaving behind his wife Jaswant Jeet Kaur and a two-year-old son. He had been commissioned in 1964.

Jaswant Jeet was honoured by the UT Administration for her husband’s sacrifice. Deputy Commissioner SB Deepak Kumar presented her a shawl, a citation and a cheque for Rs 15,000 at her residence in Sector 35 today.

“My husband was initially declared missing in action. His unit had been moved from Barki to Khem Karan and during the operations, his group had been cut off by enemy tanks,” Jaswant Jeet recalled. “After the operations ended and lists of prisoners were exchanged for repatriation, my husband’s name was not on these though the names of seven other officers from the unit were there,” she said. They had been married for three years. Some jawans from the unit had later told her that they had seen Lt Ajit Singh with bullet injuries sitting under a tree. “There was still some hope and we left no day or any means go by without trying to find out his whereabouts. Next year, Pakistan informed India about some bodies they had buried in Khem Karan and those were then exhumed and identified by their clothes and the contents of their pockets,” she recalled. “The remains were consigned to the flames on March 4 in the presence of some family members at the site of the battle,” she said.

Most of her husband’s service benefits, she said, were taken by his parents. “I did not let that bother me and had the conviction that I had to stand on my own feet and bring up my only son,” she said. “Being a graduate, she was able to get a job with the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, which she joined in 1966 and retired as a senior audit officer from the AG’s office, Punjab, in 1997. Lt Ajit Singh’s death has another coincidence. It was on this day in 1897 that his battalion, then known as 36 Sikh, had fought the epic battle of Saraghari, now in Afghanistan, where 21 Sikh soldiers had battled 10,000 tribals to the last man last round. The fight is listed as one of the 10 greatest battles ever fought on earth.

Not only this, his son, Col Satpreet Singh, got commissioned into the same battalion, which he later commanded. Satpreet had been intent on joining the Army despite his mother’s reservations.