Fighting soldiers should not be packed like sardines in trucks. The fallen sixteen should be treated as soldiers dying in combat. Simranjit Singh Mann.

The Tribune dated 24th December 2022.

Comments by Simranjit Singh Mann: Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) states that sixteen army soldiers killed in a road accident is a great tragedy, loss and shame to the forces guarding the International border with Communist China.

The Defence Ministry and the CDS should be aware that fighting forces need to be respected as they are at the front of every armed conflict. It should have occurred to these seniors that fighting soldiers should not be packed like sardines in a truck. Trucks are meant to transfer physical equipment from one place to another.

Fighting soldiers need to be treated with respect and they should travel in small buses or vans where they can be seated. Since 1947 we have been observing that the movement of fighting men is like cattle laden in a truck.

Of course when military goods are being transported in trucks, two armed soldiers should be sitting appositive one another fully armed. But soldiers packed like sardines in trucks is sickening and one is reminded of Jews being packed in trucks by the Nazi’s to be imprisoned in concentration camps.

We do hope that the Generals in the three services and CDS will look into this disaster and the movement of fighting soldiers will become more humane.

Our party would also recommend that the soldiers who have given up their lives on duty but made to travel like cattle will be treated as soldiers giving up their lives in combat and given the full monetary and other befitting compensation that is due to combatants falling on duty and combat.

We hope and request that the Defence Ministry conveys our Party’s condolences to the families of all the brave fallen soldiers.

Simranjit Singh Mānn,
President,
Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar),
Email: simranjitsinghmann@yahoo.com
website: https://akalidalamritsar.in/
facebook page: @sardarsimranjitsinghmann