‘Pay back Pakistan in the same coin’

PATNA: Slain soldier Sunil Kumar Vidarthi’s sobbing daughter, Arti, 14, demanded that her father’s real killers be punished. “We should retaliate in the same manner

PATNA: Slain soldier Sunil Kumar Vidarthi’s sobbing daughter, Arti, 14, demanded that her father’s real killers be punished. “We should retaliate in the same manner as Pakistan has done. Unless we retaliate, Pakistan will never mend its ways,” she said at Boknari village in Bihar’s Gaya.

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A pall of gloom had also descended at sepoy Rakesh Singh’s native village Badhdha under Kaimur district of Bihar.

His father, Harihar Singh Kushwaha, 70, a roadside vegetable vendor, said: “I had dreamt of a better future after Rakesh joined the Indian Army in 2008. He was our youngest child and our best hope. Everyone in our family as also the village used to love him because of his sober and helpful nature.”

Proud of his youngest among four sons and two daughters, Kushwaha said, “I am ready to send my other two sons and the two-year-old grandson, Harshit, to the army if the country needs them,” he added.

Meanwhile, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs 5 lakh to the next of kin of each of the three deceased soldiers from Bihar.

GOVERNOR CALLS FOR ‘BEFITTING’ REPLY

RANCHI: Jharkhand governor Droupadi Murmu, while paying homage to the slain soldiers at the Birsa Munda Airport in Ranchi, said militants should be given a befitting reply to curb the menace of terrorism.

The bodies of Jawra Munda of Meral village in Khunti district, Naiman Kujur of Urubardih village in Gumla district and SK Vidyarthi of Gaya in Bihar were brought to the Birsa Munda Airport in Ranchi.

Meanwhile, Jharkhand CM Raghubar Das announced exgratia of `10 lakh each to the family of the martyrs.

FATHER REGRETS NOT ATTENDING SON’S CALL

KOLKATA: Robin Ghorai, 55, a day labourer can’t curse himself enough for not speaking to his son when he called his wife Rekha on Saturday. He will never be able to hear the voice of his 22-year-old son again, said Ghorai. About 150 km away in Jamunabalia village of Howrah district, Onkarnath Dolui, 64, also a daily wage earner, too was lamenting for not speaking to his son Gangadhar when he called his mother on Thursday.

MEWAR BIDS ADIEU TO ITS ‘BRAVE’ SON

UDAIPUR/ JAIPUR: Draped in the tricolour, when the body of havaldar Nimbh Singh Rawat landed at the Udaipur airport on Monday, the mood at the usually commotion-filled terminal was somber. Rawat was a resident of Rajawa village under Rajsamand district in Rajasthan.

Sporadic protests were also held in several parts of the state with people taking to streets condemning the dastardly attack.

SLAIN SOLDIER’S FAMILY WANTS EYE FOR AN EYE

PUNE: Family members of the soldiers from Maharashtra killed in Sunday’s Uri attack said the time has come for India to cause pain to Pakistan akin to what its infiltrators did to Indian soldiers. Pakistan, they said, should suffer the way they had suffered due to the loss of their kin.

The mortal remains of the three soldiers from the state, Lance Naik Chandrakant Shankar Galande, Sepoy Sandip Somnath Thok and Sepoy Panjab Janrao Uike, were on Monday brought to Ozar airbase in Nashik from where they were taken to their respective home-towns in Maharashtra.

Another soldier from Maharashtra’s Yavatmal district Sepoy Vikas Janardhan Kulmethe succumbed to injuries at R&R hospital.

According to defence officials, his mortal remains will be brought to his native Purad village on Tuesday.

KIN DEVASTATED, DEMAND ACTION AGAINST PAK VARANASI: Slain army jawan Rajesh Singh’s younger brother Vikesh said India should take revenge against Pakistan, adding he would definitely join the army.

Rajesh Singh, a native of Bhakura village in Sarpatha area of Jaunpur district, was the sole bread earner of his family.