The ‘barbaric’ beheading of lance Naik Hemraj and brutal killing of lance Naik Sudhakar Singh on January 8, 2013 in a cross border raid by specialised troops of the Pakistan Army in the Mendhar sector of Poonch had outraged the collective conscience of India.
Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh had summed up the sentiments of the angry Indian troops by claiming that Pakistan should be pressurised to return the head of lance Naik Hemraj.
A year later the supreme sacrifice made by the brave soldiers has been forgotten to an extent that the top brass of the Army deployed in J&K did not even organise a solemn homage ceremony in the honour of the martyrs.
However, back home in Shernagar village of Mathura, the family members of martyr lance Naik Hemraj unveiled a statue of the brave soldier and organised special prayers to pay homage on his first death anniversary.
According to defence sources, the 13 Rajputana Rifles unit, to which both the martyred soldiers belonged, and Bhimber Gali Brigade remembered the brave soldiers in a simple ceremony.
Ironically, the offices of the Public Relations units at Udhampur and Jammu didn’t release any Press statement till late Wednesday providing details of a plan to organise a homage ceremony in the memory of the soldiers.
This happened despite the fact that The Pioneer correspondent had sent separate emails and SMSes on the official mobile number of Udhampur unit PRO lt-Col Rajesh Kalia and Jammu unit PRO lt-Col Manish Mehta for their comments.
In the last week of December, when a group of mediapersons visited 13 Rajputana Rifles and interacted with jawans, a subtle message was conveyed to the mediapersons not to pose ‘uneasy’ questions to jawans vis-a-vis gruesome attack on the soldiers.
In the aftermath of gruesome killing of the Indian soldiers, the Indian Army may have learned many lessons and taken adequate measures on ground zero to prevent repeat of such audacious cross-border raid, but it appears the unit of the Army in J&K was not ready to even pay a simple tribute to the martyred.