Honorary Captain Bana Singh, one of the three living legends of the Indian Army who received Param Vir Chakra, has once again come to the rescue to fellow Indians even in absentia.
Bana Singh had created history in June 1987 by capturing the worlds highest Quaid post on Siachen Glacier along with his men.
This time, a stadium named after him in RS Pura, has become second home for hundreds of displaced border residents who were shifted to safer places in anticipation of possible strike by Pakistan Rangers to avenge surgical strikes by Indian troops inside Pakistan occupied Kashmir.
After the Centre directed the State Government to shift border residents living within the radius of 5-10 kms of International Border hundreds of villagers from Suchetgarh were moved to Bana Singh stadium in RS Pura late Thursday night.
Those who were left behind reached here early morning along with their
valuables. As tension mounted and uncertainty gripped border areas large number of villagers decided to shift to safer locations during the day.
“We cannot afford to stay back in our houses especially when we know Pakistan is waiting for an opportunity to hit back”, a farmer in Abdullian border village told The Pioneer.
Another local businessman Baljeet Singh who runs a sweet shop in the area claimed, “due to prevailing tension along the International border we have decided to move to safer locations for some time to avoid any loss of life and property”.
According to official sources border residents from at least 80 villages have been shifted to safer places and shelter points in the RS Pura sector.
The district authorities have made elaborate arrangements across several Government run educational institutions and other community shelters.
The villagers in Arnia and Bisnah border belt were unhappy with the pace of construction of community bunkers in their areas. The Union Home Ministry had sanctioned construction of 60 community bunkers in the area during last year but so far 50 percent of them have been completed and out of these half of them cannot be used immediately as they are flooded with water due to faulty design.
Senior BJP State Cabinet Ministers Sham lal Choudary, Chander Prakash Ganga along with local BJP MP Jugal Kishore Sharma visited RS Pura, Samba and took stock of the arrangements made by the district authorities to accommodate border residents.
Deputy Commissioner Jammu, Kathua and Samba also took stock of the arrangements in their respective districts to prepare contingency plans.
Due to swift movement the authorities are gradually gearing up their machinery to provide basic amenities to the displaced border residents.
The women folk staying in these shelters raised the issue of lack of toilet and drinking water facility. local police officers along with some NGO's have mobilised resources to provide food. The situation in Samba and Kathua districts remained tense as large population of border residents decided to move women and children along with senior citizens to safer locations while men folk decided to stay back to look after live stock and standing crops in their fields.
The situation along the line of control in forward areas of frontier Poonch district also remained tense with local residents beginning to clean bunkers constructed in their house verandah. lokesh Kumar, a villager in forward Salotri village of Poonch, less than 5 kms from the line of control spent whole of Friday in cleaning the bunker to ensure his own safety. He said the district administration had directed us to shift to safer places in Poonch but we cannot leave behind our houses and livestock. He said his family had constructed a bunker in 1998 and today he spent the whole day in cleaning the same to protect his own life in case of Pak shelling.