Lucknow: Family members of Sepoy Sudesh Kumar, who was killed in firing by Pakistani troops along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir last year, today sat on an indefinite fast, demanding the chief minister to pay visit to their village.
Villagers and family members of Sudesh, who laid down his life on October 16, 2016, sat on a fast in the Pansukha Milak village, claiming that despite promises by the BJP leaders, none of them visited the family again.
His mother Santosh Kumari said if the chief minister did not visit them, she will commit suicide, while his wife Kavita Kumari said many politicians came and made various promises.
But none was fulfilled. “I will commit suicide if the CM does not come,” she said.
Sudesh's brother Manoj Kumar said, “We were promised sanction for a petrol pump, construction of a road and memorial in the village and renaming a village primary school in Sudesh's name by the BJP leaders, but none of the promises was fulfilled.”
The martyr's another brother, Anil Kumar, said they had lost trust in local BJP leaders and that is why they were demanding that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath should visit them.
Sudesh's father Brahmpal Singh too in is on indefinite fast.
The family had earlier too refused to perform the last rites till the then Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav visited them.
Brahmpal claimed, “The then chief minister had gone to a martyr's house in Etah as he was a Yadav. He should have come here too as there should not be any discrimination between martyrs.”
Sudesh, hailing from Sambhal district, was killed when Pakistani Army fired on Indian Army posts along the Line of Control in Rajouri district.
As Akhilesh did not visit the martyr's family, BJP leaders during assembly polls made it a political issue. BJP vice president Shiv Pratap Shukla, state general secretary Ashok Kataria and local MP Satpal Saini had also visited them and assured all help.
