Jai Hind Papa.” In a solemn moment, six-year-old Kabir, donned in army-style fatigues, rendered his final salute to his father, Colonel Manpreet Singh. The colonel, who lost his life in a confrontation with terrorists in the Kashmir valley, was cremated in his native village in Punjab’s Mohali district on Friday.
From early morning, Colonel Singh’s residence in Bharaunjian village welcomed a steady stream of mourners who came to join his grief-stricken wife, mother, and other family members in bidding him farewell. An Army officer tenderly held Kabir as the family and others paid their last respects, while a relative cradled his two-year-old sister, Banni.
During the poignant ceremony, Kabir clung to his father’s tricolour-draped coffin alongside other family members. Just before the cremation, he bowed before his father’s body, and the air was filled with patriotic chants of “Bharat Mata ke Sapoot Ki Jai” and “Bharat Mata ki Jai.”
