Jawan forced to trek 50kms in the snow with mother's body

Muhammad Abbas Khan, a 30-year-old soldier, walked for five days over mounds of snow to reach Kashmir’s Kupwara district along with his mother’s body just to bury her in his ancestral village.

The jawan, who is posted in Pathankot in Punjab, was forced to keep his mother’s body in an army barrack in Drayunyari, Chowkibal, for four days in the hope that the road would be cleared.

However, neither the road got cleared nor the authorities made any arrangements to airlift the body to Tanghdhar near the Line of Control. As a result Khan and his relatives gave up all hope of receiving any sort of help from the government.

It was then Khan and relatives decided to walk through the snow capped roads which is located 10, 700 feet above the sea level. Khan and his relatives braved mounds of snow and biting cold to reach Kupwara after five days.

“The help never came. We approached the army and the civil administration but they gave us nothing but promises,” a relative of Khan told Deccan Herald.

“They were stuck with us in sub-zero temperatures. Fortunately, we were given shelter and food by villagers. All these days we waited for the chopper. We kept calling the officers. They said it was coming but it never came. We have gone through hell all these days. The trek was dangerous and god knows how many times we thought we would not be able to make it.”

Reports suggested that Khan had taken his mother to Pathankot, where he was posted to avoid the freezing temperature of Kashmir. His mother was not keeping well and she passed away after she had a heart attack on January 28.

Surprisingly, the authorities even denied all allegations. They even stated that they had arranged for a helicopter but apparently there was nobody at the helipad.

• Jawan
• Jawan walks in snow with mothers body
• Kashmir