‘I am busy, call me later,’ martyr Baljit’s last words to daughter

Singh, 48, died while fighting the three terrorists holed up in the police station complex in Dinanagar town, about 15 km from the Pakistan border.

“I called my father on his mobile at around 9.30 in the morning when we came to know that an encounter is going on. ‘I am busy, call me later’ was his only reply,” Ravinder Kaur told reporters here.

With tears rolling down, she said her father was engaged in the counter-offensive launched by the police when she called him.

Ravinder, who is pursuing <g data-gr-id="26">bachelor</g> of dental surgery from a Bathinda college, is the eldest among three children.

Singh, who headed the detective branch of <g data-gr-id="28">police</g> in Gurdaspur, suffered bullet wounds and died in a hospital. Singh was inducted into Punjab Police in 1984 on compassionate grounds after the death of his father Achar Singh, who was also employed with the police.

“Baljit Singh’s father died in a road accident in <g data-gr-id="31">1984</g> but the police then believed that he got killed by the militants. For his exceptional service his son was given the job as an ASI (assistant <g data-gr-id="30">sub inspector</g>),” a senior police official told IANS.

Singh’s youngest son Maninder Singh has gone to Gurdaspur to bring his father’s body to his hometown. He is likely to cremated with state honours here on Tuesday.

Baljit Singh, the police officer, who was on Monday killed in the <g data-gr-id="43">gun-battle</g> with terrorists in Gurdaspur district, was a son to a policeman who too was killed by militants during the height of militancy in Punjab in 1984. Seven persons - four civilians and three policemen including Baljit, Superintendent of Police (Detective), were on Monday killed by heavily-armed militants in army uniform who early in the morning stormed a police station. Baljit had joined the force in 1985 as ASI following the death of his father, Inspector <g data-gr-id="44">Achhar</g> Singh, who was killed in a road accident masterminded by terrorists a year earlier.