Red choora still on her wrists, wife bids adieu to Ludhiana soldier; cremated with full military honours
He was killed in action during a gunfight with terrorists in South Kashmir's Kulgam, Friday. He had got married just five months ago.
The Operation which started nine days ago at Kashmir's Akhal Forest, is among the longest military operations against terrorists in the Valley in the recent years.
His newly wedded wife Manpreet Kaur bid him adieu with red choora (bangles) still on her wrists and mehendi (henna) on her hands. In Punjab, the red choora is worn by new brides for at least six months after marriage.
The couple had got married just five months ago on February 24 and since then Pritpal hadn't come home on leave to spend time with Manpreet. The family was expecting him on Diwali to celebrate the newlywed couple's first festival together in their recently renovated house.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Harbans Singh, father of the deceased soldier said: 'We have been devastated. Just two days ago on August 8, my daughter-in-law Manpreet had applied mehendi (henna) on her hands as she was preparing for Raksha Bandhan festivities and had to go to parents house to tie Raakhi to her brother. My son (Pritpal) had sent some money to buy whatever she wanted for the festival. The same day my son died fighting the terrorists in Kashmir. She is our like our daughter.'
'Since the day they got married in February, they did not spend much time together as he had left for duty immediately after marriage. We were expecting him on Diwali to celebrate but he will never return now,' said the wailing father.
Samrala MLA Jagtar Singh Diyalpura along with sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Rajnish Arora paid tributes to the soldier on the behalf of Punjab government. The Indian Army gave a gun salute to the brave heart before his mortal remains were consigned to flames.
Diyalpura said that Punjab government will provide financial assistance of Rs 1 crore to the family as announced by chief minister Bhagwant Mann.
Pritpal Singh had joined the force in 2015 and his uncle (father's elder brother) had also retired from the Army.
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.
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