2 min readNew DelhiMay 4, 2016 07:37 AM IST
First published on: May 4, 2016 at 06:21 AM IST
Ninety-eight years after Risaldar Badlu Singh died attempting to capture a machine gun in Palestine, as part of the British forces during World War-I, and was buried in Cairo, soil from his memorial in the Egyptian capital reached his village, Dhakla in Haryana’s Jhajjar district, on Tuesday.
Haryana Agriculture Minister O P Dhankar brought the soil from the memorial during his recent trip to Egypt.
Born in Dhakla on January 13, 1876, Singh was a Risaldar in 14th Murray’s Jat Lancers, attached to 29th Lancers (Deccan Horse) in the British Indian Army. He was awarded Victoria Cross, the highest posthumous award for bravery for British and Commonwealth soldiers.
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Satish Kumar, Singh’s great-grandson, said the family had requested successive state governments over the years to get a fistful of soil from his “samadhi” in Cairo to fulfill the Hindu custom of getting the ashes back to one’s birthplace, but in vain. “When O P Dhankar, who comes from our village, was going to Cairo I requested him, and he brought it for us,” he said.
Dhankar arrived in Jhajjar with the urn at 11 am, and was greeted by Singh’s family at Kosli Mod, from where a procession started towards Dhakla village, approximately 30 kilometres away, with many people joining in. At Dhakla, soil from Singh’s grave was taken to a site where a memorial is to be built in his honour — next to a memorial built by villagers for his great-grandson, Pankaj Kumar, who was killed in the Kargil war.
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“Everyone here knows Badlu Singh — even the children. We have all grown up listening stories about him. This is a very happy moment for us all,” said a resident of Dhakla.
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