In an inhumane incident, an Army Jawan was forced to carry his mother’s dead body on his shoulder for about 30 Kms in order to reach his native place in Srinagar in the extreme cold weather after senior officials denied his request to provide a chopper to lift his mother’s body. The Jawan has been identified as Muhammad Abbas.
Abbas, who hails from Karnah district in Jammu and Kashmir, was posted at Pathankot. In order to prevent his mother from facing the biting cold conditions in Kashmir, he brought his mother to Pathankot to stay with him. But,on January 28, Abbas’s mother suffered a cardiac arrest and died.
Following the demise, Abbas took his mother’s body to Srinagar. But, due to heavy snowfall the roads were blocked and he failed to carry forward his journey to his native place Karnah. So, he called his seniors for help and requested a chopper to lift his mother’s body. However, his plea was denied owing to bad weather conditions.
According to the reports, he then went to Drangyari in Kupwara, again reaching out to the Army to help fly his mother’s body to Chitrakote, 52 kms away. However, no help came there too.
“Abbas kept his mother’s body in an Army barrack, hoping the road is cleared of snow,” the reports said.
After waiting for three days, he then left with no other option rather than to carry his mother’s dead remains onto his shoulder. Abbas, along with a few relatives who had joined him in Kupwara, started walking carrying the body in 5 to 6 feet of snow. They carried the body for 10 hours and covered a distance of about 30km. Abbas and his relatives carved a walking track in the snow and had to cross Sadhna Top, a place located at 10,700 feet.
Recalling the incident Abbas’s cousin told a leading newspaper: “An army unit in Drangyari helped us with over a dozen labourers. In all, we had 50 men. Forty of us were making the track (through the snow) and another five to 10 people took turns to carry the body.”
” At times, our men slipped into the snow up to the neck and the others had to pull them out. We have gone through hell all these days. The trek was dangerous and God knows how many times we thought we would not be able to make it,” the news paper quoted Abbas’s cousin as saying.
