4 from Punjab killed in Pulwama terror attack; gloom descends on villages

Tribune News Service 
Chandigarh, February 15

Wails of a 7-month-old child cuts through the somber ambience at the home of constable, Sukhjinder Singh where grieving friends and family members are assembled.

The baby boy too small to understand what tragedy had hit the family.

Not long back , Sukhjinder was celebrating the festival of Lohri with the family, which was the first for the toddler. The Pulwana terror attack rudely snatching those moments of happiness from them.

Sukhjinder was amongst the 42 CRPF jawans killed in an IED attack by militants on Thursday. The grieving Tarn taran village now awaits the body of its son.

Sukhjinder Singh leaves behind a seven-month-old son, who was born after a gap of eight years.  

He had recently come home to celebrate the first Lohri of his son. And left the village recently never to come back.  Villagers and family members vented their anger on the attack and demanded that the Centre should avenge the deaths and give a befitting reply to the “Pakistan-backed” terrorists.

At least 42 CRPF troopers have died and 38 others injured in the worst ever terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir since militancy erupted there in 1989.

A suicide bomber on Thursday rammed his SUV packed with explosives into a CRPF bus on the Srinagar-Jammu highway in Pulwama district that has left the security establishment stunned.

At least four CRPF troopers from Punjab were killed in the deadly attack on a convoy in Pulwama in neighbouring Jammu and Kashmir.

The four from Punjab include Jaimal Singh of Moga district, Sukhjinder Singh of Tarn Taran, Maninder Singh Attri of Gurdaspur and Kulwinder Singh of Ropar.

A resident of Ghalauti village in Dharamkot subdivision of Moga distirct, Jaimal Singh, 44, was the driver of the fateful bus that was blown up in the attack.

"Our son has been martyred for the country. Though the loss can never be filled, our government and Army should teach a lesson to Pakistan for this cowardly act," father Jaswant Singh said.

Jaimal Singh leaves behind his ageing parents, wife, a 10-year-old son and a younger brother.

Satpal Attri, father of Maninder Singh Attri, said that his son had gone back to join duty on February 13 only and had called him up after reaching Jammu.

"He died the very next day. We are proud of him even though our loss can never be filled," Satpal Attri said. Maninder's younger brother is also serving in the CRPF and is posted in Assam now.

The other trooper from Punjab who also died in the Pulwama attack is Kulwinder Singh from Anandpur Sahib area of Ropar district. He was to get married in 2019 later.

Anti-Pakistan protests were reported from different places in Punjab and Haryana. With IANS inputs