As the whole country joined the families of the 17 Indian Army soldiers — killed in Sunday's terrorist attack in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir — in their hour of mourning, state governments announced cash amounts to be given as solatium to these grieving families.
The attack, which had come in the early hours of Sunday morning in the Brigade Headquarters of the army base in the Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir, led to the death of 17 Indian Army soldiers. At least 13-14 of them were sleeping in tents at that time and were killed in a fire from the explosions set off by the attackers.
The four terrorists — suspected to be from the Jaish-e-Mohammed terror group — who had perpetrated the attack were neutralised in a matter of hours. However, that was of little solace to the families of the jawans killed in the attack.
The governments of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar and Jharkhand have announced solatium for soldiers from their states that were killed in the attack. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has announced a solatium of Rs 20 lakh each for families of Sepoys Ganesh Shankarm, Harinder Yadav and Rajesh Kr Singh, and Lance Naik RK Yadav.
The Maharashtra government has announced financial assistance of Rs 15 lakh to the families of Lance Naik G Shankar and Sepoys Janrao Uike and TS Somnath.
Meanwhile, Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das has announced Rs 10 lakh each for the families of Sepoys Javra Munda and Naiman Kujur. And Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has announced Rs 5 lakh each for the families of Sepoy Rakesh Singh, Naik SK Vidarthi and Havildar Ashok Kumar Singh.
However, even that seemed of little consolation to the kin of the martyred soldiers, who now want their deaths avenged. The family of Sepoy TS Somnath in Maharashtra told news agency ANI on Monday that they were proud of the martyred soldier. "The government must take the sternest action against the perpetrators [of the attack]," they said.
The family of Sepoy Rakesh Singh in Bihar echoed those sentiments over his death. "Desh ke liye kurbaan ho gaya toh koi afsos ki baat nhi [We have no regrets because he was martyred in the service of the nation]," said his brother.
The wife of Havildar Ashok Singh, who was also from Bihar, said she wanted nothing but revenge for the death of the 17 jawans, including her husband.
