Poonch Martyr Harkrishan Leaves Behind a 1.5-Yr-Old Daughter and A Pregnant Wife

Harkrishan Singh is one of the five jawans martyred in the attack on an Army vehicle in J&K's Poonch on 20 April.

Poonch Martyr Harkishan Leaves Behind a 1.5-Yr-Old Daughter and A Pregnant Wife

(Photo: The Quint)

"Roti kha li? (Did you have food?) Harkrishan had asked when we spoke on video call at around 12:00 pm. He was cracking jokes. That was the last time I heard his voice," said Mangal Singh an hour before the body of his youngest son Sepoy Harkrishan Singh (27) in Talwandi Bharath village of Punjab's Batala reached home wrapped in the national flag.

Harkrishan is one of the five jawans martyred in the deadly attack on an Army vehicle in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch on Thursday, 20 April.

As villagers and family members try to console Harkrishan's bereaved family, including his mother Pyar Kaur (65) who is still shocked, many express concerns for his 1.5-year-old daughter Khushpreet and his wife Daljeet (25) who is five months pregnant.

Harkrishan Singh's wife Daljeet with 

(Photo: The Quint)

"After we learnt of an attack in Poonch, we realised he had not called after 3:00 pm that day. I kept calling him to check up on him but could not reach him," Daljeet said before breaking down. The family got the news at around 7:00 pm on Thursday after the Army called Mangal Singh at 7:00 pm.

"The officer was a little reluctant while speaking. I understood something is wrong. He then said Harkrishan has been martyred in an attack but asked me to not tell a lot of people yet. They called at my workplace. I broke down," Mangal Singh, a former Army jawan himself, told The Quint over the phone.

Family members console Harkishan Singh's mother Pyar Kaur at their residence.

(Photo: The Quint)

'Get Your Own 'Vardi' Rather Than Wearing Mine': Father Remembers Harkrishan

Harkrishan was the youngest of five siblings. Mangal Singh, who served in the Army for 18 years himself, remembers how Harkrishan started preparing to be recruited at a very young age.

Harkishan Singh in his younger days.

(Photo: The Quint)

"As a kid, he would wear my uniform whenever I would come back home for leave. I would tell him, 'Don't wear my uniform, get your own someday,'" Mangal Singh recalled.

"As a 12-year-old, he had started self-training. He put a rod to do pull-ips and would workout on it. He wanted to get as tall as he could. I would tell him he is tall enough," he said. Harkrishan was inducted in the Army in 2017.

'Don't Want Anything From the Government Other Than...'

Mangal Singh said that the family does not expect anything from the government, but Daljeet and her children's future should be secured.

"We don't want anything from the government. My son died serving the country and we are proud as a family. What else do we want? We only ask that his wife Daljeet gets a government job because their is daughter Khushpreet is just 1.5 years old and Daljeet is five months pregnant," he said.

Father Mangal Singh sits by his son Harkrishan Singh's coffin that arrived at their Punjab residence on the night of 21 April.

(Photo: The Quint)

Sarwan Singh a fellow villager who watched Harkrishan grow up, fondly remembers him as a "good-mannered and cultured boy."

"He was one of the bright kids. I used to watch him play around since he was little and I was a teenager back then. He would greet everybody when he returned to the village. The thing I liked about him the most was that every time he returned, he went and met his teachers in his school. He would thank them every time for what he had been able to achieve," Sarwan Singh said.

Harkrishan, along with Havaldar Mandeep Singh, Lance Naik Kulwant Singh, Sepoy Sewak Singh, and Lance Naik Debashish Biswal were martyred after the army vehicle they were travelling in was attacked and caught fire due to the grenades hurled at it by terrorists "who took advantage of rains and low visibility," the Army said in a statement.