Billu Ram wants his family back

Billu Ram is anxious. His wife and children are held hostage, or have been trapped, as militants from across the LoC are holed up in his house, reports Arun Joshi.

Billu Ram is anxious. His wife and children are held hostage, or have been trapped, as militants from across the LoC are holed up in his house.

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When jawans are engaged in a battle

of guns, grenades and wits with the militants, nobody is actually paying much attention to Billu Ram,
a labourer, and his family.

When he woke up this morning at his hospital bed — Billu was bitten by a snake two days ago — he had no clue that his house had become a battle zone.

“Even when I reached Chinore crossing, I didn’t know that militants were hiding at my house,” he told Hindustan Times. He was escorted to his home by soldiers, making him wear a helmet and a bulletproof jacket.

Surrounded by more than a dozen policemen and a few neighbours, 37-year- old Billu Ram looks intently at the gates of his house. But no one is coming out.

He has four children — Sheetal (9), Ishant Kumar (7), Kajal (6) and Vipin (3) — wife Sunita and younger brother Tarsem and his wife Ritu trapped inside the house.

Soldiers have told him that efforts were being made to rescue the residents of the house before the final assault. And that may mean blowing up his house.

“Do whatever you want to do, blow up the house, but get my family back to me,” Billu Ram says, to one in particular.