A husband-wife officer couple of Himachal Pradesh who have offered to bear the educational expenses of the school-going daughter of an Indian soldier who was killed and mutilated by the Pakistan Army earlier this week met the family of the slain soldier in Punjab on Saturday.
The officer couple -- Yunus Khan, an Indian Administrative Service officer and his wife Anjum Ara, an Indian Police Service officer, visited the family of Paramjit Singh at their native village Voin Poin in Punjab's Tarn Taran district, close to Pakistan border, around 255 km from Chandigarh.
"It is a salute to the soldier who sacrificed his life for the country," Khan, who is posted as Deputy Commissioner of Kullu, told reporters after meeting the family.
He said this was a small gesture on their part to the slain soldier's family.
The couple met his younger daughter, Khushdeep, whose expenses they will bear.
"We all should come forward to help the families of the martyred soldiers. Our country needs the thinking of brotherhood. This is a small initiative by us," he said.
Naib subedar Paramjit Singh was killed near the Line of Control in Krishna Ghati area of Poonch district in Jammu and Kashmir on May 1 along with Border Security Force trooper Prem Sagar and their bodies "mutilated".
Khan's wife Anjum Ara, a 2011-batch IPS officer who is posted as Superintendent of Police in Solan, said the girl, Khushdeep Kaur, 12, would continue to stay with her family.
"The children need emotional and financial help. Their mother will help them emotionally. I am also a mother and will help them emotionally," Ara said.
"She (Khushdeep) will remain with her mother. We will keep coming here. We will help her as a member of the family," an emotional Ara said.
Khan, who is born in Punjab's Malerkotla town, said the family agreed that "we would bear the entire education expenses of this girl".
"It was my and my wife's feeling (to support the family of the soldier). This family also needs our emotional support. So we are here," Khan, a 2010-batch IAS officer, told IANS over the phone.
"We will help this child in shaping her career. We will give her freedom, proper guidance and moral and financial support. We will take care of her entire education," Khan said. He had a narrow escape in 2013 when a tractor-trailer tried to ram his official vehicle thrice while he was checking illegal quarrying.
The officer couple has a four-year old son.
Ara said that bearing the educational expenses of the child was the initiative of her husband who had seen emotional pictures of the victim's family on a news channel.
"So we have decided to help the family."
"Many officials have adopted children (of slain soldiers) and they are helping them," she added.
Khushdeep, a Class 7 student, has elder 15-year-old brother-sister twin siblings -- Simardeep Kaur and Sahildeep Singh.
The soldier's wife Paramjit Kaur said: "For us, this couple is like a god. We are grateful to them for this gesture."
--IANS
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