8-yr-old back with dad’s ashes from Afghanistan

NEW DELHI/JALANDHAR: Tearful scences were witnessed at the IGI Airport in New Delhi on Thursday as the ashes of 12 Sikhs and one Hindu man killed in a suicide blast in Jalalabad were brought from Afghanistan by family members and six of the injured for performing the last rites at Kiratpur Sahib in Punjab.

Eight-year-old Gurpreet Singh, who arrived with the ashes of his father, is consoled in New Delhi on Thursday. Mukesh Aggarwal

Tribune News service

New Delhi/Jalandhar, July 19

Tearful scences were witnessed at the IGI Airport in New Delhi on Thursday as the ashes of 12 Sikhs and one Hindu man killed in a suicide blast in Jalalabad were brought from Afghanistan by family members and six of the injured for performing the last rites at Kiratpur Sahib in Punjab.

Holding the ashes of his deceased father Raju Singh, eight-year-old Gurpreet Singh broke down when he saw his mother at their New Mahavir Nagar house — and with him, all those present found it diffult to hold back tears.

It was a lucky escape for Gurpreet, as his mother, who was in Delhi at the time, initially thought that he too was accompanying his father at the time of the blast on July 1.

Heart-rending scenes were also witnessed at the house of 18-year-old Gurpreet Kaur, whose social media status read: “I miss you dad forever!” Eldest of the three children of Anup Singh, who was among the victims, she said her father had left for Afghanistan around two months ago. “I never thought I would meet him this way. He was a very doting father and a God-fearing man. I wish ‘Waheguru’ had allowed him some more time to stay with us,” added Gurpreet.

SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal, SGPC president Gobind Singh Longowal and DSGMC president Manjit Singh GK were present at the IGI Airport to receive the grieving families.

Meanwhile, a three-member committee formed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to look into the citizenship issues of Afghan Sikhs hasn’t met even once. The committee, comprising Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj and Union Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, has to submit a report on the prospects of providing citizenship and rehabilitation to over 350 families presently stranded in Afghanistan.

Slamming the delay, the DSGMC chief said the families were completely devastated and in a dire need of emotional and financial support.

The DSGMC has announced to take care of the injured Sikhs, who will be taken to AIIMS on Friday. It has also provided a bus to the families of the deceased to take the ashes to Kiratpur Sahib for the last rites.