Hearth-rending scenes were witnessed as bodies of Jawans killed in the blast triggered by the Communist Party of India (Maoist) were laid to rest at their respective villages in Chhattisgarh. The wife of a jawan jumped on the funeral pyre of her husband to immolate herself. The incident reduced everyone present at the cremation to tears. The forest area where the cremation of the jawans who died in the blast took place resounded with cries.
It may be recalled that 10 Jawans of the District Reserve Guard (DRG) died on April 26 in a blast set off by Maoists at Dantewada forests on the borders of Jayashkanar Bhupalpally border in Telangana. A civilian driver too died in the incident.
One of the Jawans, named Lakhmu, who died in the blast was taken to his native village Niram under Bijapur district for cremation. As the funeral pyre was built, his wife, Tule Madkami, in full public view, jumped on the funeral pyre to immolate herself. The Adivasi elders had a tough time dissuading her from immolating herself. The elders persuaded her by telling her not to make her children orphans.
