Name : Havaldar Sahib Singh
Regiment : 8 Sikh
Fought at : Tiger Hill, Drass
Today : Private security guard in Karnal
He was one of those who made the most famous of all Kargil victories, the reclamation of Tiger Hill, possible. Ten years later, Havaldar Sahib Singh ekes out a living standing outside a bank as a private security guard.
After moving to Drass in May 1999, he was part of the group supplying ration and ammunition to soldiers uphill. “ It was July 3. Like any other day, me, two sepoys and a lance naik were hiding inside a bunker and discussing our strategy. But heavy shelling suddenly started,” he recalls.
One of the bombs hit their bunker. “ A sepoy was killed on the spot. Splinters hit me and another sepoy. I was seriously injured in the legs. We risked our lives and crawled out,” he says. That was the end of Sahib Singh’s Army career and the beginning of his life in a queue of soldiers seeking “ respectable rehabilitation”. He receives a pension and some statutory benefits now. “ But that is not sufficient even to make both ends meet. For six years, I searched for a job on grounds of merit and compassion.
I got nothing,” he says. “ Now I am a private security guard working on a contract basis. If the bank does not renew the contract any year, I will again be jobless.”
Regiment : 8 Sikh
Fought at : Tiger Hill, Drass
Today : Private security guard in Karnal
He was one of those who made the most famous of all Kargil victories, the reclamation of Tiger Hill, possible. Ten years later, Havaldar Sahib Singh ekes out a living standing outside a bank as a private security guard.
After moving to Drass in May 1999, he was part of the group supplying ration and ammunition to soldiers uphill. “ It was July 3. Like any other day, me, two sepoys and a lance naik were hiding inside a bunker and discussing our strategy. But heavy shelling suddenly started,” he recalls.
One of the bombs hit their bunker. “ A sepoy was killed on the spot. Splinters hit me and another sepoy. I was seriously injured in the legs. We risked our lives and crawled out,” he says. That was the end of Sahib Singh’s Army career and the beginning of his life in a queue of soldiers seeking “ respectable rehabilitation”. He receives a pension and some statutory benefits now. “ But that is not sufficient even to make both ends meet. For six years, I searched for a job on grounds of merit and compassion.
I got nothing,” he says. “ Now I am a private security guard working on a contract basis. If the bank does not renew the contract any year, I will again be jobless.”
