Prayers on the path to recovery

Nadeem cannot still recall the day fully. He was on his way home in Gujarat and asleep when a thunder-like crash woke him up. ‘‘I felt as if the bus was falling from a height but could not open my eyes. After the second blast, my eyes opened and I found myself surrounded by bodies. I could barely move my legs and arms and was bleeding from the head when I saw four people dragging me out of the bus,’’ he says.

But he is confident he will recover soon and return home. ‘‘Our department is taking full care,’’ he told BSF DG Ajay Raj Sharma. ‘‘Our DG visited us there, he came to visit us today and was with us even when we were being treated in Srinagar.’’

Relatives of the jawans, however, say Delhi has not been very kind. ‘‘We are in the capital where all politicians and big leaders are living but no one could spare a few minutes for the jawans who ensure the country’s safety and fight in the most hostile conditions,’’ said Mangal Singh, a BSF jawan from Jammu who has come to be with his brother, Sandeep Singh. ‘‘Sandeep and Surendra had gone for BSF recruitment on May 20. It seems now that their chances of joining the forces are completely gone… we are now just praying for their survival,’’ he says.

Sleeping outside on the corridor outside the department, the jawans’ relatives have had to brave rain, cold and winds for the past few days. ‘‘In the day, we stay in the waiting room but by the evening the staff locks this place also and we have to stay outside. We are worried about the well-being of our loved ones but then we have to struggle for ourselves also. What do people like us do when we have no relatives here,’’ asks Gulshan Kumar from Jalandhar, who with his elder brother, is waiting for some good news about constable Raj Kumar. ‘‘He is married and has two children awaiting his return at home,’’ he says.

The authorities are not saying much, though. ‘‘They are in critical condition in ICU, with bad burn injuries. With more than 40 per cent burns, it is a difficult situation but we are doing our best,’’ says Ajay Raj Sharma.