Farmers Movement Archive

Endless wait to get 1971 war hero back home

Tribune News ServiceJalandhar, December 16As the country celebrated the 49th Vijay Diwas on Wednesday, the family of 1971 war hero Mangal Singh based at Rama Mandi here is hoping that their endless wait to meet him ends soon.For the past 49 years, the soldier’s brave wife Satya Devi (75) has been pinning hope that her husband lodged in a Pakistan jail would return home soon. Having raised her two sons, all alone, who were aged three and five years at the time when her husband went missing, she said it was they who had been doing all the correspondence with the Indian Government these days to find a solution.Her son Lance Naik Daljit Singh, who has served in the Indian Army for seven years, said, “My mother has single-handedly carried out the fight to bring back my husband all her life. She used to stitch clothes to make ends meet. It was her regular correspondence with the Army officials that she managed to get a quarter for us at Thamaiya Park here. I was in Class II when my father’s Commanding Officer RK Singh, Vir Chakra awardee, called us to Bihar and took adequate care of us. His regiment took care of me and my younger brother Baljinder Singh for our school education and my mother began taking stitching classes for women there.” Having been discharged from the army, Daljit and his brother are currently into taxi driving work here.All these years, the mother has met every person who returned from Kot Lakhpat Jail. She has been visiting every house of Pak jail returnee to inquire about her husband. “They all say that some 1971 war heroes are still lodged in the jail. Once or twice, she even managed to receive a message from him which determined her to keep the fight spirit alive,” Daljit added, before opening up more, “I too have written several posts to the government. Along with her, I have met many ex-External Affairs Ministers. Every time we go, we only get an assurance. But we certainly have to get our family member back.” He only has one picture with his dad, which he has preserved at his ancestral village Daroli Khurd in Adampur.

The Tribune

2020-12-17