As the body of BSF braveheart Gurnam Singh wrapped in the Tricolour arrived at his home on Sunday, his mother Jaswant Kaur kept the promise made to her son not to cry over his martyrdom. The family is proud of the sacrifice made by the 26-year-old in the line of duty but demanded a specialised hospital in his name for the border guards and troops injured on IB and loC to help save their lives.
BSF constable Gurnam Singh, who was critically injured in the sniper attack from Pakistan at a Border outpost in Hiranagar sector of Jammu frontier on Friday, succumbed to his fatal injuries inside Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Government Medical College (GMC) hospital in Jammu late on Saturday night.
Ageing father of Gurnam Singh, while paying tributes to his son, said, “Our son has sacrificed his life for the nation, nobody is sad. We are all happy he attained martyrdom in the line of duty.”
His younger brother Mandeep Singh while remembering his elder brother said, “Gurnam Singh always told me to work hard and join BSF. Now he has attained martyrdom I want to fulfil his last wish by joining the Border Security Force (BSF)”.
Gurjeet Kaur, sister of Gurnam Singh, appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to sanction one state-of-the-art hospital for BSF jawans serving on the border. She said, “I lost my brother but I don’t want other jawans succumb to their injuries for lack of treatment facilities.”
The braveheart was one of the BSF soldiers, who were instrumental in foiling the infiltration bid by a group of heavily armed infiltrators in Hiranagar sector of Jammu frontier on the intervening night of October 19-20.
Fearless soldier in Gurnam was standing tall at his forward outpost the next morning while he came under attack from across the border and received fatal injuries as he was shot in the head.
The BSF jawans present at the post faced difficulty in evacuating him from the forward location due to heavy exchange of fire from both the sides. After BSF retaliated heavily they were able to shift him to GMC, Jammu. Since then he was battling for life.
After his family members pointed out the delay in airlifting him to New Delhi for specialised treatment, senior BSF authorities met doctors in GMC on Saturday evening and directed them to prepare him for airlifting on Sunday morning via Air Ambulance.
Gurnam, however, succumbed to his injuries around 11.30 pm on Saturday. His parents and other close relatives were present in the hospital when he breathed his last.
Hailing his supreme sacrifice Special DG, BSF (Western Command) Arun Kumar told reporters on the sidelines of a ceremonial farewell ceremony, “It is a proud moment for BSF as one of our brave soldiers Gurnam Singh was able to repulse the infiltration bid and also killed some of the infiltrators”.
He said he attained martyrdom for the country while protecting the border of the mother Nation.
Special DG, Arun Kumar also announced that Constable Gurnam Singh’s name would be recommended for the highest gallantry award by the BSF authorities to the Government of India.
“Absolutely the gallantry award would be a lesser possible award for him as he deserves much more but we will be recommending for that”, Arun Kumar said in response to a specific query.
Fellow BSF soldiers while paying glowing tributes to him said, “He was very brave soldier. He always remained at the forefront. Narrating a recent incident one of the soldiers told The Pioneer,” after foiling the infiltration bid when he returned to his post on October 20 he was still standing tall inside his bulletproof patrol vehicle. He briefed senior officers of the Jammu frontier at the post and they patted back of the braveheart.
last rites of Gurnam Singh would be performed on Monday. His family had requested that they wanted to keep the mortal remains of their brave son at their home for at least one night.
BSF handed over his body, draped in Tricolour to his family on Sunday. At his native village thousands of villagers had converged in and around their house to pay homage to the brave son of the soil. Senior politicians and BJP Ministers along with senior divisional and police officers also paid homage to the braveheart at BSF headquarters.