Jakhar visits martyr’s kin in Dinanagar

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Dinanagar (Gurdaspur), Feb 15

Member of Parliament (MP) from Gurdaspur Sunil Jakhar visited the house of Sepoy Maninder Singh at Arya Nagar, Dinanagar, today to express his sympathies with the soldier’s family.

Maninder Singh, who joined duty last week after spending 10 days at his home, was killed in the attack on a CRPF convey in Pulwama in J&K yesterday. The MP was accompanied by DC Vipul Ujwal, SSP Swarandeep Singh, SDM Sakattar Singh Bal and senior officers of the administration.

Jakhar was on his way to New Delhi late last night when he heard the news of the attack. He immediately asked the DC to prepare a list of soldiers belonging to Gurdaspur and Pathankot districts who were killed in the attack. Also present were Ravinder Kumar Vicky, president of the Shaheed Parivar and senior Army officers from the Tibri cantonment.

The DC subsequently informed the MP that one soldier, Maninder Singh, hailed from the area. Jakhar offered his condolences to the deceased’s father Satpal Attari. He said the Modi government should not be cowed down by such attacks and added that the government should come out with a “proper and firm” policy to deal with the perpetuators of such “dastardly actions.”

“In June, 2015, when three Pakistan-trained Lashkar-e-Toiba militants attacked the Dinanagar police station, seven persons —three civilians and four security personal — were killed and the Modi government had promised to take action. However, nothing tangible was done despite the attackers leaving clear-cut evidence that they had crossed over from the Bamial border from Pakistan. Six months later, four Jaish-e-Mohammad militants laid siege to the high-security Pathankot Air Force base and threatened to blow up the entire station using hand grenades and RDX. Again the Union government dilly dallied. This sent a negative message among the security men. Now the time has come to take stringent action against our neighbouring country. One surgical strike is not enough,” said Jakhar.

Cabinet minister and Dera Baba Nanak MLA Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said it was too early to comment if such incidents would have an impact on the construction of the Kartarpur Sahib corridor. “It is too early to say if such actions will act as an impediment in the corridor’s construction. It is sure to cast a shadow, but to what extent is still in the realms of speculation,” he said.