Drone blast victim dies, second from same family

Lakhwinder Singh (57), who had got critically injured when one of the Pakistani drones fell on his house at Khai Pheme Ke village on the outskirts of the Ferozepur Cantt here on May 9, succumbed to the injuries late last night at a private hospital in Ludhiana. As per information, his condition had deteriorated during the last few days and was under critical care.

Earlier, his wife Sukhwinder Kaur (54) had died after she got injured in the same incident. However, their son Jaswant Singh (27), who had also got injured, has recovered now.

Deepshikha Sharma, DC, said that the state government was taking care of all expenses for his medical treatment, adding that an amount of Rs 28.5 lakh had already been paid to the hospital, but unfortunately, Lakhwinder could not survive. She said that already an ex-gratia of Rs 10 lakh had been paid to the family earlier when Sukhwinder had expired. She said that any further compensation shall be decided by the government.

Talking to The Tribune, Jaswant said that he had lost everything in the drone attack. “Earlier, I lost my mother and now, my father has passed away, I do not know what to do now,” said Jaswinder.

Earlier, the family had refused to cremate the body of Sukhwinder while demanding adequate compensation. However, after an assurance from the district administration to take up the case with the state government, the family members had cremated her. They had also demanded the deceased to be accorded the status of a martyr.

Earlier also, tragedy had struck this family when Jaswinder’ s younger brother Gurjant Singh (19) had died in a road accident around three years ago.

Punjab