BSF jawan cremated a week after demise under UN duty in Congo

Gorakhpur: The distraught family of a deceased BSF jawan could get to see the body and cremate their lone bread-winner almost after a week he died, as “procedures” held up an immediate air-dispatch of his mortal remains from a UN mission in Congo.[caption id=“attachment_1746191” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. AFP[/caption] The tragic case pertains to 45-year-old Border Security Force head constable late Shubh Karan Yadav who was part of an Indian security contingent which was deployed in Congo in the middle of last year under the United Nations (UN) emblem. The trooper, officials said, suffered a “severe brain haemorrhage” on 14 April at his remote base in the war-torn country and was airlifted the next day to country’s capital Kinshasa. He was operated but could not survive. “The post-death procedures including a post-mortem were conducted under the United Nations procedures and his body finally arrived in the evening hours of 22 April in Delhi. It was immediately dispatched to Yadav’s native village Baidauli Babu in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur which reached his family the next day,” a senior BSF officer coordinating the task in Delhi said. “We cremated him yesterday evening with full military honours. It was a terrible time for our family as the body reached us almost after a week we got the news of his death. But BSF officers and other seniors were in constant touch with us even as they assured us that they were doing their best,” Yadav’s relative Rajesh told PTI. Yadav is survived by his wife and four children including three unmarried daughters. “The eldest daughter had been married sometime back but according to our rituals she was to be sent to her in-laws place after the ‘gauna’ ceremony which we had planned after he came back from the UN duty in Congo by early next year,” Rajesh said. Officials said this sort of time delay was usual as the UN and its agencies take time to send a body home as all the troops and contingents work under UN rules and charter. BSF has been sending its contingent every year for civil police duties, as part of the UN charter, to this African nation for many years now. Yadav, who joined the force in 1988 as a constable, belonged to the 45th battalion of the border guarding force based in Jammu and his combat unit is at present deployed in Chhattisgarh for anti-Naxal operations. “This is yet another example which displays how troops who serve the country are faced with challenges and troubles during their duties and even after death,” a senior officer commanding Yadav’s unit said. PTI