'BJP leaders broke promises': Martyr's kin go on hunger strike

Family members of Sepoy Sudhesh Kumar, who was killed in firing by Pakistani troops along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir last year, sat on an indefinite fast on Friday, demanding the chief minister’s visit to Pansukha Milak village.

Villagers and family members of Kumar, who laid down his life on October 16, 2016, sat on a fast in the village, claiming that despite promises by the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, none of them visited the family again.

“We were promised sanction for a petrol pump, construction of a road and memorial in the village and renaming a village primary school in Sudesh’s name by the BJP leaders, but none of the promises was met,” Sudesh’s brother Manoj Kumar said.

Another brother of the martyr, Anil Kumar, said they had lost trust in local BJP leaders and that was why they were demanding that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath should visit them.

Sudesh’s wife Kavita, mother Santosh Kumari, father Brahmpal Singh, Anil and a number of villagers began their indefinite fast.

The family had earlier too refused to perform the last rites till the then Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav visited them.

Brahmpal claimed, “The then chief minister had gone to a martyr’s house in Etah as he was a Yadav. He should have come here too as there should not be any discrimination between martyrs.”

Sudesh, hailing from Sambhal district, was killed when Pakistani Army fired on Indian Army posts along the Line of Control in Rajouri district.

As Akhilesh did not visit martyr’s family, BJP leaders during assembly polls made it a political issue. BJP vice president Shiv Pratap Shukla, state general secretary Ashok Kataria and local MP Satpal Saini had also visited them and assured all help.

IMAGE: Visuals of the funeral procession of Sepoy Sudhesh Kumar at his native village in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, last year. Photograph: PTI Photo