Kupwara attack: ‘He spoke to his mother everyday; today she kept calling, no reply…’

Vishwendra Singh, 22, a driver with the Army Supply Corps, was a few kilometres from the Army camp in Kupwara, where his father, Subedar Bhoop Singh Gujjar, 46, was posted. He got to know that the camp had been attacked and, later, that his father had been killed. “He was not allowed to see our father,” said elder son Pushpendra Singh, 26, a daily wager. “Vishwendra was told he could see him only in Delhi. It was so distressing for my young brother, being so near… I don’t know why so many soldiers are getting killed and the government is doing nothing about it.”
Their village of Kherla Bujurg in Dausa’s Mahwa block has had a tradition of sending men to the Army. Bhoop Singh’s younger brother Mukesh, too, was in the Army.

“We were told about his death in the morning by an Army official. Our mother Rama Devi and family are grief-stricken. An Army officer told us the body would arrive by Friday afternoon,” Pushpendra said.

Captain Ayush Yadav, 26
Defence Colony, Kanpur

Hoping for new posting, he invited his parents to Kashmir

On Wednesday evening, Captain Ayush Yadav called up his mother Sarla in Kanpur and asked her to plan a trip to Kashmir as he expected to be transferred out of the Valley in a few months. The next morning, his father Arun Kant Yadav got a call from his unit informing him about Ayush’s death in a terror attack.

Arun Kant Yadav is a sub-inspector with Bargarh police station in Chitrakoot. He is due to retire next year. Ayush was their only son. He last came to Kanpur in February for the wedding of his elder sister Rupal, a probationary officer with a public sector bank.

Arun Kant told reporters in Kanpur that security personnel are getting killed but the government is only “talking about action while no action has been taken”. “I was watching the news… When they said he was from artillery, I got worried. Later my nephew, who too is in the Army, called me after a long time. It was very unusual. Then, I got a call from his unit,” he said.

“He had been in service for just about three years. I used to tease him, ask him to get married before I retire. But he would say he would not marry for two or three years,” his father said. “He would ask us to visit Srinagar; I would tell him there is so much turmoil in Srinagar. He would ask me why I should be scared when he was not; I would tell him I am a father and so will always worry,” he added. “He used to speak to his mother everyday. Today she kept calling all morning but there was no response…”

Naik B Venkata Ramana, 38
Kancherlapalem, Vizag

He was ready to come home, admit his son to school

On Tuesday night, Naik Bhoota Venkata Ramana had called his wife and told her he would come home within three weeks to ensure that his son B Ganesh, now out of upper KG, could be admitted to a good school. Ramana’s aunt Ramulamma said they were discussing if Ganesh should be admitted in the same school where his sister Chinmayi is studying in class III when the news came about the attack on the camp where Ramana was posted. Ramana’s parents — Anjeneyulu, 60, and mother Ramamma — both stay in a small house with their daughter-in-law and grandchildren in Kancherlapalem on the outskirts of Vizag. Naik Ramana had last come home in February.