Key Points
Kargil hero's father remembers Pulwama martyrs
Emotional tribute highlights soldiers' ultimate sacrifice
Families bear immense pain of losing loved ones
Calls for national peace and remembrance
Speaking with ANI, Batra said that families of the jawans who laid down their lives in the line of duty struggle to come to terms with the loss of their loved ones. He also shared the pain of other parents.
"It is very sad when our Jawans lay down their lives in the line of duty. Their families become helpless. We should always remember our Jawans because if our country exists today, it is because of them. We only want peace and this ongoing sequence to end. When someone lays down their life in the line of duty, we also remember our child. We feel the pain of their parents."
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi also paid their tributes to the personnel killed in the attack.
On February 14, 2019, a suicide bomber rammed an IED-laden vehicle into a CRPF convoy, killing 40 soldiers. Subsequently, the Indian Air Force carried out multiple aerial strikes on February 26, 2019, at JeM terror camps in Pakistan's Balakot, killing a "large number" of terrorists and destroying their infrastructure.
The airstrike was launched in the early hours of February 26, and Pakistan's efforts to launch an offensive the next day to target Indian military installations in Jammu and Kashmir were thwarted by an alert IAF.
In the dogfight, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, flying a MiG-21 Bison fighter plane and chasing Pakistani jets, crossed over into Pakistan, where his aircraft was shot down. He was taken into custody by Pakistan. India had also shot down a Pakistani fighter jet.
