Army turns messiah, flies 10 of family for kin’s last rites

The Army has turned out to be a messiah for flood-ravaged families in the region, rescuing scores from the jaws of death and providing succour to many who had lost all hope.

In one such tragic but heart-warming incident, the Army joined marooned villagers and the civil administration of Gurdaspur to help 10 members of a family bid the final goodbye to one of their own.

The incident happened in flood-ravaged Gurdaspur this past week. With the Ravi waters still above the danger mark, having already swallowed huge tracts of land along its floodplains, the local administration got a strange, but sad SOS from Amrik Singh, sarpanch of Bharial village, that falls in the enclave across the river near the International Border.

Troops come to rescue of woman in labour

A nine-month pregnant woman in labour, who was stranded at Ramkot village in the Jammu region, completely cut off by road, was airlifted to a hospital for urgent care. Through rain and darkness, Army troops marched 18 km at night to coordinate the evacuation by a Dhruv helicopter in inclement weather, and the woman was safely evacuated to a military hospital in Samba. She delivered a baby girl the next day.

“A young man, Balwinder, had died in a road accident in Fazilka. However, his entire family, living in a hamlet (Rajpur Chibb) along the India-Pakistan border, was unable to get his body to the village as the seven villages on the other side of Ravi were completely cut off. The body had been brought from Fazilka to Dinanagar by some relatives. Amrik Singh has remained our key contact in that area for supplying rations and other aid to the villagers. When he cried and narrated the plight of the family, I decided that we must find a way to help them,” said Dinanagar SDM Jaspinder Singh Bhullar.

At first, the Gurdaspur administration approached Army officers, who were on duty for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, requesting them for help in airlifting the body of the victim from the Dinanagar hospital to Rajpur Chibb. However, the family realised that the cremation ground there was flooded and no dry wood was available. So they requested the administration if the 10 members could be somehow brought to mainland Dinanagar. A formal requisition was sent to the civil military liaison officer, who then arranged for a chopper.

Pardeep Kumar, brother of the deceased, while talking to The Tribune, said his father Pritam Chand was in shock, and kept pleading with all villagers to arrange for a proper cremation for Balwinder. “The family was preparing for his wedding in two months. However, destiny had other plans. The village elders then got together, spoke to Amrik Singh, who in turn approached government officials. When the rain subsided on September 3, 10 of us were airlifted and taken to the Dinanagar hospital. We reached late, so the cremation was performed on September 4. We will be forever thankful to the government officers and the Army for helping us bid Balwinder the final goodbye,” he said.

“This is a unique example of reaching out to civilians in distress, and standing by them in times of tragedy,” an Army officer said. “The Army remains steadfast in its commitment to provide all possible assistance in times of need and there have been several instances during the ongoing relief operations where troops have carried out several life-saving evacuations,” he said.

In another incident, a woman suffering from a cardiac ailment was rescued by a flood relief team of the Kharga Sappers from a village near Amritsar. Due to her medical condition, she was unable to move, making the rescue operation particularly challenging. As access to her residence by boat was not possible due to the floods, the team proceeded on foot. The team carefully evacuated the bedridden woman on her cot, carrying her on their shoulders for approximately 300 metres to a boat.

In yet another such incident, the Army used improvisation to rescue a young woman along with her newborn who had been marooned in a flood-hit village in Gurdaspur and used boats and other vehicles to transport them to a safe location. The troops swung into action and rescued them from the first floor of a building with an improvised ladder, and then evacuated them over 3 km in a boat, followed by 15 km in an Army vehicle to a safer place.

In a high-risk helicopter rescue operation by the Army aviation, stranded civilians and RPF personnel were evacuated from a building surrounded by raging floodwaters at the Madhopur Headworks. Despite dangerous flying conditions, Army pilots brought their helicopter down on a building that was already on the verge of collapse and soldiers ensured that every single stranded person was lifted to safety.

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