“Papa, I will need my leaves later because I have to get our house built,” CRPF jawan Ram Vakeel had told his father-in-law before leaving for Kashmir, where he, along with at least 39 other personnel, was killed in a terror attack in Pulwama on Thursday, 14 February.
“What do we do with his leaves now?” ask bereaved members of his family, as they prepare to face the reality of living without him.
Vakeel, who is survived by his wife and three children, had just left his home in Uttar Pradesh’s Etawah to rejoin his unit after five days’ leave.
Vakeel’s wife had asked him to extend his leave as several arterial roads in Kashmir had been blocked by heavy snowfall. But Vakeel insisted that he could not stay back.
“He had just come home for six days. There was heavy snowfall and the roads were jammed, so we told him to extend his leave,” she said, “But he insisted on heading back... so that he could take a leave in April to oversee the construction of our house.”
She now has to explain to her infant son what happened to his father when he asks “What happened to papa?”
Vakeel’s father-in-law had also asked him not to leave. “I had told him not to go and extend his five-day leave. But he said that he didn’t have any leaves left and would need them in April.”
Vakeel is not alone, many families like his – kin of other CRPF personnel who died in the attack – were left in shock. While some were not able to respond to the loss, others made peace by saying that their death was a sacrifice for the nation.
At least 37 CRPF personnel were killed and five injured on Thursday, 14 February, in one of the deadliest terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir when a Jaish-e-Mohammed suicide bomber rammed a vehicle carrying hundreds of kilograms of explosives into their convoy in Pulwama district of Jammu & Kashmir.
Click here for all the live updates on the terror attack.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)