A pall of gloom descended on the families of Naib subedar Paramjit Singh, a junior commissioned officer (JCO), who was beheaded, and Border Security Force head constable Prem Sagar, whose body was mutilated by Pakistani armymen who launched an offensive against their Indian counterparts at the Line of Control yesterday.
Media reports said Singh's family was trying to keep the news from his wife Paramjit Kaur.
The Indian Express reported that Singh was supposed to go on leave April 28, but postponed his holiday for one of his friends who had to take urgent leave. He was supposed to be home on May 8.
The newspaper quoted a family member, Satnam Singh, as saying, "We have not informed Paramjit about her husband's death yet. We have been trying to keep it from her as long as possible before the arrival of the body. People have been coming to our house as soon as they hear of this. So, it is becoming becoming difficult for us to hide it from her."
Meanwhile BSF Jawas Sagar's brother, who is also in the BSF, has said the he was proud of his brother.
"My brother is a martyr and I am very proud of him. I request Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the way they are beheading our soldiers, we should too," said Head Constable Sagar's brother, Daya Shankar Prasad told NDTV.
Sagar is said to have spoken to his wife early on Monday, a few hours before his death.
While Sagar belonged to Uttar Pradesh's Deoria, Singh was from Tarantaran in Punjab.
Singh was from the Army's 22 Sikh regiment that had released a song in November last year, challenging Pakistan that had gone viral on social media.
The Indian Express quoted Lt Gen S S Chahal (retd), former Director-General, Military Operations (DGMO), and a former Commanding Officer of the same battalion as saying, "It is one of young battalions of the Sikh regiment and was raised in 1980. I commanded it during Operation Blue Star in Chandigarh and later in the North East. I am sure that the Army and the battalion will avenge this act of Pakistan Army."
The Indian Army, in a press release on Monday, said that the Pakistani army had mutilated the bodies of two Indian soldiers on the LoC. The statement said that the two soldiers were on patrol in the LoC.
While India condemned the incident, calling it a barbaric act, Pakistan has said that its army was not involved in the mutilation of the soldiers.
PTI quoted Defence Minister Arun Jaitley as saying, "Bodies of soldiers being mutilated is an extreme form of barbaric act. The government of India strongly condemns this act. The whole country has full faith in our armed forces which will react appropriately to the act."
Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson, M Nafees Zakaria took to Twitter and said:
The Hindustan Times reported that firing began at 8:25 am from Pakistan's 647 Mujahid Battalion, deployed on the forward defence line, and that Indian troopers at Kripan-1 retaliated with automatic weapons at 8:40 am.
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