Saving others’ lives, he lost his own

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, October 21

The family members of Balbir Singh are inconsolable. They say Balbir was standing along a wall nearby when he noticed the train approaching at a fast speed. Finding audience glued to the burning effigy and their mobile phones to record it, he ran towards a group of children on the rail track. No one knows if he achieved any success, but he got knocked down by the DMU, hurtling at a speed of 91 km per hour.

His mother Varinder Kaur, a widow, says he was not among the onlookers on the track. “He was among the few who watched the DMU approaching the site,” she says.

His eldest son Kamaljit Singh, a student of Class XII, recalls that on that fateful day his father took the entire family, comprising his younger brother Gurpreet Singh (17), sister Manpreet Kaur (14) and mother Jasbir Kaur to Gurdwara Safedyan Wala, situated opposite Dhobi Ghat, so that they could watch the Dasehra celebrations from a vantage point of the gurdwara building. “He noticed the train approaching and rushed to save children who stood on the track,” recalled a distressed Jasbir Kaur.

The family took him on Activa scooter to the Guru Nanak Dev Hospital where he was declared dead.

Since the invitation posters showed dance performances and singer Boota Mohammad’s presence, the event drew a huge crowd.

The LED screen facing railway line was one of the reasons behind people gathering on the tracks.

Tarjit Singh, uncle of the deceased, said the compensation of Rs 7 lakh was inadequate for the subsistence of a family with three growing up children. He said the deceased was the only breadwinner of the family. One person each from the victims’ families must be given government job, he added.