Jhunjhunu’s ‘village of soldiers’ brushes aside surgical strikes, calls it just politics

DHANURI (JHUNJHUNU): Saira Banu, a woman in her nineties, is a local icon. A resident of

Dhanuri village

in

Jhunjhunu district

, she represents the sacrifice the women of bravehearts make.


“Her husband left to fight in the World War II immediately after their wedding. As things were different in those days, Saira Banu, a child in 1945, never came face to face with the man she was married to. He never returned and yet, till date she continues to identify herself as his widow,” said Sultana Banu, the

sarpanch

of Dhanuri, which over the years has earned a reputation as “village of soldiers”.

Post-independence, the village has witnessed the martyrdom of seven of its soldiers. If the two World Wars are included, the figure reaches 17. Almost every house in the village, which has a Muslim population of nearly 70 per cent, has a member working with the armed or paramilitary forces. There are over 250 ex-servicemen and at least a hundred serving ones, from sepoy to brigadier.

“Most of the residents of the village are Kayamkhani Muslims, for whom joining the army is the most natural choice. We have seen generations, one after another, opting for it,” said Shabir Mohammed, who retired from the Army in 1995.

However, this famous village, despite all the glory and the politicians’ focus on defence forces, is a victim of government apathy. The demand for a memorial dedicated to its heroes has been ignored since 2011.

“I have been running from pillar to post for land allotment and getting a budget sanctioned, but the governments have not been very supportive. We all want that a memorial be built and the names of the martyrs from the village be inscribed on it,” said Captain Liyakat Ali (retired), who heads the state chapter of Voice of Ex-servicemen and belongs to the village.

Vasudev Parikh, a retired government teacher, said the village has seen it all—

war heroes

, martyrs, prisoners of war, battle injuries. “However, there is nothing in the village that pays tribute to the courage of the soldiers except for the government school which was recently renamed after the 1971 war hero Major M H Khan,” he said.

Khan’s younger brother Mohmood Hafiz, younger brother of Khan and former sarpanch of the village, recalls, “My brother, a Vir Chakra awardee, was killed two days after he successfully led a raid and destroyed a target in the Pakistani camp during 1971 War. These days such raids are called “surgical strikes”.

It was different then. Mortal remains were not sent home, there were no slogans like ‘Jab tak suraj chand rahega...’ raised, though the then deputy CM had visited us.”

One would believe that Pulwama attack and Balakot air strikes would be a hot topic for discussion at a village of soldiers, but most villagers just brush it aside saying the these are being politicised. “The talks surrounding Pulwama and Balakot are plain politics. We, of all people, know not to choose our representative based on the speeches,” said Safi Mohammed, another ex-serviceman.