TEHATTA/HOWRAH: Two Bengal villages — one in Howrah’s Bauria and the other in Nadia’s Tehatta—on Friday became microcosms of the nationwide outrage over Thursday’s killing of 40 CRPF jawans at the hands of a Jaish-e-Muhammed suicide bomber in Pulwama The grief-struck families of the two martyrs — Sudip Biswas, 27, of Hanspukuria in Tehatta, and Bablu Santra, 39, of Chok Kashipur in Bauria — mourned and seethed with rage at the senseless killings of the jawans.Widowed at 32, an inconsolable Mita Santra said, “Our leaders hail men in uniform. Filmmakers highlight their sacrifice on screen. But why is the government so indifferent towards security of jawans? Had security for the convoy been fool-proof, I wouldn’t have been widowed at a young age, my daughter wouldn’t have lost her father at six and my mother-in-law wouldn’t have lost her son at 71.”CM Mamata Banerjee spoke to Santra’s 71-year-old mother Bonomala Devi and offered her all help.Sudip, who joined the CRPF only five years ago, had spoken to his family over the phone on Thursday itself, while Santra last contacted his family from a CRPF training centre in Dharamsala on Sunday. He had told them that he would be reaching Jammu on Monday to rejoin his 35th battalion where he was a head constable. Santra had joined the force in 1999.Sudip’s brother-in-law Samapta Biswas said, “Around 9am on Friday, I got a call from CRPF in Jammu. The caller asked if Sudip wore a ring. When I said no, the caller asked if he had moles on his body. I told him he did. The line got cut. Soon, he called back to inform that Sudip was died in the attack.”Samapta said that Sudip’s coffin will be flown to Kolkata via Delhi. “A CRPF officer called around 3:15 pm on Friday to inform me that the coffin was in Jammu airport. I think it will reach here on Saturday morning,” said Samapta.Babla’s brother Kalyan was frantically trying to reach him after he heard about the attack. “Ever since I heard of the attack on Thursday evening, I was trying to call some of his colleagues whose numbers he had given me after I failed to reach him. I finally managed to contact one of them around 3am and heard that they were searching for Babla. Around 5pm, I got a call from Jammu saying that his dismembered body had been found.”Sudip, the lone earner in his family, last visited home in December. Babla too came in December for his 6-year-old daughter Piyal’s birthday. “He had given his daughter a boy’s name. He wanted to raise her like a boy and had wanted her to become a doctor and join the Army when she grows up. We, as a family, will try to fulfil that wish,” said Kalyan.

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