Martyr's wife won’t touch a penny of compensation, demands action

The loss was yet to sink in and the outrage was far from over. That was the scene on Wednesday in the native villages of the four Bihar soldiers who were killed by Pakistani attackers in a cross-border strike the day before.

As Bihar waited to reclaim its heroes — Vijay Kumar Rai of Bihta, Shambhu Sharan Rai of Bhojpur and Premnath Singh and Raghunandan Prasad of Saran — anti-Pakistan slogans rent the air, as did demands that the Centre take direct action against Pakistan. BJP workers burnt Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s effigy in the heart of Patna.

In Bihta, a defiant Pushpa Devi, Vijay Kumar’s wife, refused to accept the compensation announced — Rs. 10 lakh each to the families of the four martyrs — by the state government.

“Can Rs. 10 lakh bring back my husband? We don’t want compensation but strong military reply to Pakistan for killing my husband and other Indian soldiers,” she said.

Fighting back tears, she pointed to her seven-year-old son and said. “He will also continue the family tradition of his father, uncle and grandfather. They all served the army and so will he.”

The other families echoed Pushpa Devi’s anti-Pakistan sentiment.

“Pakistan should be taught a lesson so that it does not dare repeat such a cowardly act ever again”, said Shambhu Sharan’s brother Ravishankar.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people blocked the Chapra-Gorakhpur railway track for seven hours demanding that the Samhauta-Kopa railway station be named after Premnath Singh.

Meanwhile, bodies of four jawans from Bihar who were killed in an ambush by Pakistani soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir reached Patna late Wednesday night.

(with PTI input)