Tag Archives: Major Shafeeq Khan Ghori

The story of an Indian hero who laid down his life for the country

Amazing Feats, Community Involvement / Social Issues, World Opinion, , , , , , , , ,

Mysuru, KARNATAKA :

This July, Salma Shafeeq Ghori completes 15 years without her husband Major Shafeeq Khan Ghori. It was her son’s first day at school. She had been visiting family and they had just come back home when a group of Army men knocked on the door. They had been trying to reach her the whole day with the news.
The first two days, they said his condition was critical. “It was a shock for my father-in-law and my little one who did not understand what was happening around him. Nobody wanted to believe it was him and finally after two days of wait and agony, he was brought home for a final farewell with due military honours,” Salma recollects.
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The story of a brave heart
It took their son three years to understand what happened on his first day at school. His questions about his father’s return finally stopped and he accepted that he was truly gone. He stopped asking his mother – why don’t we visit him and why can’t we call him? Tell him to visit me in my dreams, I want to see him.
Relatives had often told Major Shafeeq – what you have done is enough. It is time to leave the fighting and stay with your family. He would respond with twinkling eyes, that he could die walking on the road too. At least working at the Army would give him a death he could be proud of. He hadn’t joined so he could leave.
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On a more serious note, he would prepare his family members. “Live life always as though I am with you and the kids. Never deprive them of anything just because I am not there. I’ll be back soon,” That’s how life continues now, as though he is still a part of us,” Salma reminisces.
Major Shafeeq, 40, was killed in action in Operation Rakshak. He succumbed to a bullet fighting militants. His last act was saving a fellow-soldier’s life from the bullets. His field tenure was to end in another two years and he was to spend the next few years with his family in a peaceful location. He was a keen sportsperson, good at football and cricket, but his favourite pastime was singing.
“I miss daily life with him, our conversations, our travels together, the ferocious way he defended what he believed in, his love, and bringing up our children. He was a hero with a mighty heart,” Salma relates.
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Putting together the pieces
Salma and Shafeeq had a happy life together for 10 years, till 2001. With two beautiful children, Salma says that she didn’t know what sorrow was. The children grew up and got busy with school, but she felt a void that nothing could fill. This changed when she made friends with Subhashini Vasanth, who ran the Vasanthratna Foundation for Arts.
Vasanthratna Foundation helps the families of Army martyrs heal through arts and vocational activities. “While looking after the families of martyrs, understanding their sorrow and pain, I realised that I was not the only one who was suffering. So many of them had it much worse than me. Spending time with these women and empathising with them has helped me overcome my own pain,” says Salma.
Many more families need peace and healing
Hundreds of soldiers in the Army die every year, leaving behind their families. Many families lose their only support and need help carrying on. Vasanthratna Foundation helps such families, giving them vocational training, counselling and support to carry on and be brave.
Donate to help the foundation support vocational training for 30 Army widows here.
source: http://www.milaap.org / Milaap / Home / August 2016

Over a cup of evening Tea : Martyred and Quartered

Amazing Feats, Community Involvement / Social Issues, , , ,

Mysuru, KARNATAKA  :


Martyred and Quartered

It has been said that people remember their Gods and soldiers only in times of great danger. I have written about this before in my article: “Fading Memories and Forgotten Heroes” last year and I am writing about this again today as public memory is woefully short and this is an issue that merits mulling over again both by citizens in general and those in power in particular. Every country today maintains its own fighting forces and every country in the world invariably remembers its war veterans and martyrs and also ensures a permanent place of honour for them by naming important landmarks in its towns and cities after them.

Considering our unique and rather shameful attitude of forgetting our martyrs and war veterans it is indeed heartening that tomorrow on the occasion of our Republic Day we at Mysore are honouring three war heroes hailing from our city who have been recipients of the Veer Chakra for the bravery and valour they displayed during the 1965 and 1971 Indo – Pak wars. This gesture makes this year’s Republic Day celebration unique for all Mysoreans and it is indeed a proud moment for us. This is thankfully due to the initiative taken by a former soldier M. N. Subramani who has successfully prevailed upon the district administration to include this ceremony in tomorrow’s programme.

Subramani was my class fellow and close friend during our PUC days at St. Philomena’s College in the early seventies. Being a keen marksman he was the only close contender with me for the first place in Rifle shooting during our stint in the NCC. After this brief interlude with the uniform and the rifle he decided to continue his love affair by enlisting in the army while I decided to study on and become a doctor donning the white coat.

Although just a humble sergeant he has ever since his discharge from the army been actively striving to ensure proper post-retirement benefits to ex-servicemen by starting the Vekare Ex – Servicemen Trust in the city which among its other welfare activities has been campaigning for the establishment of a separate war memorial in the city to perpetuate the memory of all our soldiers who have laid down their lives in the call of duty. Thanks to his efforts, for the first time we saw a helicopter showering rose petals on the marching contingents at one of our Independence day parades and also at one of the Dasara air shows.

When we come to think of it, although we already have a freedom fighters’ park and are in the process of soon getting a proper memorial for our police martyrs, we do not have in our city any landmark designated as a memorial to our soldiers who have died and who are sadly continuing to die on different disturbed fronts. This lacuna becomes more poignant and painful when we consider the fact that nearly a dozen young soldiers from our own city and district have laid down their lives in wars and cross-border strife after independence.

It is said that only the brave die young. Except for the Squadron Leader Devaiah Bhavan which was also established rather belatedly again only due to the efforts of our friend Subramani, we have nothing named after these nameless heroes in the city of their birth to record their noble sacrifice and perpetuate their memory. While we are quick in naming and renaming our roads, circles, parks and other landmarks after our innumerable politicians many of whom have actually not done much good for our society, we have somehow forgotten our martyrs.

Although it may seem like a very easy and simple job to get the government to name a road or landmark after a martyr, in reality it is not so, with all the red – tape one has to untangle in the process. I am saying this from my personal futile experience over the past six years in getting our corporation and district administration to name a road or circle as a tribute to my brother-in-law Maj. S. M. Khan Ghori, a former student of the Maharaja’s  College, who laid down his life at the age of 40 on 1st July 2001 while fighting insurgency in Kashmir. I have walked through all the corridors of power, meeting all the people, both high and low, who have all been reassuring me that it will be soon be done while they play the inevitable game of ‘musical chairs’ with their posts.

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Maj Ghori, an Artillery officer of the 172 field regiment with nineteen years of service including four years in the Indian Air Force, had served in all the disturbed areas including the North-East and had received a special commendation from the President of India. When he died while on deputation to the Rashtria Rifles he received one of the best Military funerals I have ever seen. With his father serving as the warden of the Muslim Hostel in Saraswathipuram, he used to live in the warden’s quarters next to the fire station and as a student everyday he used to walk to the Maharaja’s College along the road that passes in front of the Hostel and the Ursu Boarding School and he also used to play cricket in the Maharaja’s college grounds.

In a gesture that would be sentimentally appropriate to the memory of his sacrifice, I had suggested to the City Corporation to name this as yet nameless stretch of road from the Fire Station to the Ramaswamy Circle, which passes in front of his favourite haunts after him. The file pertaining to this matter though fattened by all the relevant documents that I was asked to furnish from time to time, now lies under layers of dust with the note of approval written on it by the former corporation commissioner A. B. Ibrahim. The former Deputy Commissioner Selva Kumar who had also appreciated the move and who had promised appropriate action in this matter has since been transferred. While the monetary compensation and allotment of residential sites or quarters to war widows may fulfill their worldly needs these compensatory measures do nothing to perpetuate the memory of soldiers slain on the battlefield.

It is time we thought of drawing up a list of all the martyrs from our district and honouring them by suitably naming our land-marks without any further delay.

Dr. K. Javeed Nayeem
kjnmysore@rediffmail.com
Courtesy: Star of Mysore

source: http://www.exservicemen.in / ExServicemen India / Home> News> Views> Articles / by M N Subramaniam / September 10th, 2010

Dr. Javed K Nayeem / Star of Mysore

Remembering sacrifice of those killed in line of duty

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Mysuru, KARNATAKA :

Eight families of Army personnel to be felicitated

District administration to do the honours during the official Republic Day function

VeKare Ex-Servicemen Trust’s president says it is for the first time war widows will be honoured

Mysore:

On Republic Day, the district administration will honour the family members of the armed forces personnel who laid down their lives while defending the country.

M.N. Subramani, president of the city-based VeKare Ex-Servicemen Trust, who first mooted the idea of felicitating ex-servicemen and remember the personnel who were killed in the line of duty by honouring their family members, said that this is for the first time that war widows were being honoured by the district authorities during Republic Day celebrations. “Of those who are being honoured, five are war widows and three are mothers of unmarried soldiers who laid down their lives for the sake of the country”, said Mr. Subramani.

Dakshayani, Nirupa Madappa, Salma Shafeeq, Sarala, Jyothi Bai, Yallammal, Lakshmi and Saroja will receive the felicitation on the occasion.

Dr. Dakshayani, a resident of Vijayanagar II Stage, is the wife of Lt.Col. N.S. Yogesh of 6 Rashtriya Rifles. He was killed in an army operation against terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir on May 11, 1996. On receiving specific information about the presence of two terrorists, Yogesh immediately led his men and cordoned off the village. When the house in which terrorists had taken shelter was being cordoned off two terrorists rushed out and fired indiscriminately. In the encounter that followed Lt.Col. Yogesh sustained a bullet wound in the abdomen. Disregarding the bleeding injury he followed the second militant and in the firing that followed, the militant was injured but Lt.Col. Yogesh succumbed to his injuries. The Government recognised his contribution by way of conferring him gallantry medal posthumously.

Nirupa Madappa, a resident of Ramakrishna Nagar, is the wife of late Major Ganesh Madappa of 36 Rashtriya Rifles. Maj. Ganesh Madappa was directed to carry out a raid on a suspected militants’ hideout at Bachchru village in Badgam district of Jammu and Kashmir on September, 27, 1995. Major Ganesh Madappa immediately had the house cordoned off and he rushed to block the exit. Shocked militants rushed out and started firing in desperation. Maj. Ganesh Madappa boldly engaged the militants at a close range. As a result, he suffered bullet injuries. Yet, he charged at the militants killing one of them before collapsing. He later succumbed to his injuries and was awarded the Shaurya Chakra posthumously.

Salma Shafeeq is the wife of late Major Shafeeq Mahmood Khan Ghori. Maj. Shafeeq Mahmood Khan Ghori (Artillery) died on July 1, 2001 while fighting terrorists in Boban Watsar forests of Jammu and Kashmir. Major Shafeeq Mahmood Khan Ghori was posthumously awarded the Chief of the Army Staff’s Commendation for his meritorious service.

Sarala, wife of late Sepoy Naik Kiran Kumar, will also be honoured on Tuesday by the district authorities. Her husband laid down his life fighting terrorists in Kashmir on January 9, 2008.

Jyothi Bai is the wife of Sepoy Sakriya Naika who was killed by terrorists on May 13, 2003 in Kashmir.

Yallammal is the mother of late Sepoy S. Vasu. Sepoy Vasu laid down his life on July 1, 1990 while fighting terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir during Operation Rakshak.

Lakshmi is the mother of late Sepoy Hema Chandu. Her son died fighting terrorists at Surankot in the Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir on August 26, 2001.

Saroja’s son Sepoy A.P. Prashanth died on December 31, 2003 fighting terrorists in Kashmir during ‘Operation Rakshak II’.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / January 25th, 2010