In Moga, a ‘son’ is laid to rest

Karamjeet Singh was taken to the cremation ground amid heavy sloganeering against Pakistan by villagers who turned up in large numbers to pay tribute to the soldier.

Armymen pay tributes to the body of slain Rifleman Karamjit Singh at his native village in Moga on Tuesday. (Express Photo by Gurmeet Singh)

Killed in unprovoked firing by Pakistan troops in Sunderbani sector of Rajouri in Jammu & Kashmir Monday, rifleman Karamjeet Singh (24) was laid to rest with full honors and a gun salute in his native village Janer of Moga district Tuesday. He was taken to the cremation ground amid heavy sloganeering against Pakistan by villagers who turned up in large numbers to pay tribute to the soldier.

As the coffin wrapped in the tricolor was carried to the cremation ground, villagers shouted ‘Pakistan murdabad’ and ‘Shaheed Karamjeet amar rahe’. Village sarpanch Malwinder Singh said that it was their anger that was pouring out. Karamjeet’s aged mother Kulwant Kaur fainted as his mortal remains were brought home.

Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh announced aid of Rs 12 lakh for the family, which he said included Rs 7 lakh ex-gratia and Rs 5 lakh in lieu of land as per policy.

“Pakistan shamelessly continues to violate all principles of international & humanitarian law with its repeated ceasefire violations. Punjab has once again lost a young soldier from Moga due to Pak firing. My heart goes out to the family of Karamjeet Singh,” he tweeted.

Karamjeet’s father Avtar Singh and elder brother Swaran Singh lit the pyre after an Army contingent led by Captain Gokul Ashok gave him a gun salute.

Karamjit had joined the Army in 2015 and was posted in Jammu & Kashmir for over one and a half years.

The cremation was attended by Moga Deputy Commissioner Sandeep Hans and SSP AS Bajwa. Captain Gokul Ashok from 18 JAK RIF regiment, to which Karamjit belonged, laid a wreath on behalf of the Indian Army.

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Faridkot AAP leader Sadhu Singh, Congress MLAs Harjot Kamal and Sukhjit Singh Lohgarh and former minister Tota Singh also attended the cremation.

Divya Goyal

Divya Goyal is a Principal Correspondent with The Indian Express, based in Punjab. Her interest lies in exploring both news and feature stories, with an effort to reflect human interest at the heart of each piece. She writes on gender issues, education, politics, Sikh diaspora, heritage, the Partition among other subjects. She has also extensively covered issues of minority communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She also explores the legacy of India's partition and distinct stories from both West and East Punjab. She is a gold medalist from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Delhi, the most revered government institute for media studies in India, from where she pursued English Journalism (Print). Her research work on “Role of micro-blogging platform Twitter in content generation in newspapers” had won accolades at IIMC. She had started her career in print journalism with Hindustan Times before switching to The Indian Express in 2012. Her investigative report in 2019 on gender disparity while treating women drug addicts in Punjab won her the Laadli Media Award for Gender Sensitivity in 2020. She won another Laadli for her ground report on the struggle of two girls who ride a boat to reach their school in the border village of Punjab. ... Read More

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