Too young to understand, donned in Soldier’s uniform, the 7-year-old innocent Kabir said, ‘Jai Hind…Papa’ while performing the last rites rituals of his martyred father Colonel Manpreet Singh of New Chandigarh.
The last rites of Colonel Manpreet Singh, who was martyred in an encounter with terrorists in Anantnag on Wednesday, September 13, were held in his native village Bhadoujian. Here he was given farewell with full military honors.
The martyr’s mortal remains were brought from Chandigarh to Bhadojian, where a crowd gathered outside his house. Colonel Manpreet’s wife, Jagmeet Grewal kept crying with her head on his coffin. Jagmeet is a teacher at Pinjore Government School in Panchkula. The martyred colonel’s last journey took 20 minutes to cover the distance of 200 meters from the house. Punjab Governor Banwari Lal Purohit arrived to pay tribute to the martyr.
It is said that no one better than Punjab knows the pain of sacrificing a son for the country, and this was proved again when villagers themselves cleared the route through which the colonel’s last journey reached the village. People cleaned the streets of the village before the arrival. When the mortal remains reached home, people showered flowers.
The mother of Martyr Colonel, Manjeet Kaur said that she often watched the news of Jammu and Kashmir on TV. Ever since her son was posted in Jammu and Kashmir, she felt that someday she would see him on TV, but the day the news of her son came on TV, she could not watch it for some reason.
