Martyr Girinda Kumar Das did not even see his only daughter

ALL FOR VALOUR

Girinda Kumar Das was born in the year 1968 in the Kamarigaon region of Balipara in the Sonitpur District of Assam. He was the only son of father Lakhiram Das and Mother Proteswari Das. He had four elder sisters and two younger ones.

Girinda Kumar Das had joined the armed forces in the year 1996, just after the completion of his higher secondary course.

"Ours was an arranged marriage and everything happened quite fast. I was in my final year of graduation when both of our parents decided to get us married." remembered Momita Das, the wife of the late Girinda Kumar Das.

The young couple was married on the 22nd of February in 2004. She was with child soon afterwards and their daughter was born on the 7th of December on the same year. Gririnda Kumar Das was martyred on the 28th of the same month and sadly the father and daughter never saw one another. This remained a big tragedy for Momita Das and her voice still breaks when she talks about it.

Their only child is the seventeen year old daughter Pronita Das. She is now in the second year of the higher secondary course in the science stream. She does miss her father sometimes but her mother never let her feel the absence of a fatherly figure.

"The last time I talked to him was two days before the incident. Mobile phones were not prevalent at that time and our home did not have a landline. So I had to walk a bit of a distance to get to the phone. I was very unhappy with him for not being with me at that time. But he was very happy to know that we had a daughter. Brought up in a family being the only son, he always wanted to have a daughter of his own. He had also promised me that he would come home after a few days and spend time with his daughter," she reminisces.

Girinda Kumar Das had joined the armed forces in the April of 1996. And he was posted as a Lance Naik in the 119 Infantry Battalion (TA) of the Assam Regiment. He was posted on border patrol duty on the Indo-Bangladesh Border in the Indian state of Tripura when the unfortunate incident took place, that claimed his life.

On December 28 of 2008, Das and his team left at 7 am for patrol duty. The team did not have much experience or expertise in the local terrain of the region. The team of 17 soldiers was ambushed by militants who started firing on the wheels and blowing up the tyres of their two vehicles. Once the vehicles were damaged and some soldiers were injured, the insurgents then surrounded the vehicles and started firing indiscriminately at them. The attack left 16 brave soldiers of the team martyred and only one survived to tell the horrific tale.

Momita Das had just given birth to their daughter and was not in good health when the tragic incident happened. Moreover, the information was not given to her over the phone, but the husband's family called her back with the pretext of the deteriorating health of her mother-in-law. The news was given to her only when she arrived at the house of her in- laws.

The last rites were performed at home two days later by the people from the armed forces. The forces wanted to set up a memorial in the region to remember the fallen heroes but the local people insisted on doing it by themselves. However, the idea never became a reality and his memory now remains in the hearts of the friends and relatives, and in the record books of the forces alone.

Wife Momita Das shifted to her parent's place soon after the death of her husband on duty. It is located in the Borpukhuripar village near Tezpur. "I was in my final year of graduation when we got married. He always wanted me to complete my education and do a job someday. I had even taken my books to my new home after our marriage in 2004," said the wife.

She fulfilled his dream by completing her graduation. She is currently engaged in a contractual job and takes care of her mother and seventeen year old daughter.

"In our short stay together, I understood that he was a very loving and helpful man. Apart from looking after his family members, he also helped out other people in need. He also loved to play football with his friends both in the forces and in his village. He loved to dance, especially Bihu and was well known for the same," Momita Das says.

The Tripura state government had given a onetime compensation to the family amounting to Rs 2 lakhs, after the incident.

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