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Family was in dark about Afghanistan deployment
KASKI, JUL 15 -
The entire village of Lamachaur VDC-2 in Kaski is in mourning, while family members of Arjun Purja Pun never knew that he was posted in Afghanistan until he was killed in the war-ravaged country on Tuesday.
“We never knew that our son was deployed in Afghanistan. We came to know about this only after news of his death broke,” a tearful Kinmaya Pun, the mother of the Gurkha soldier said on Thursday.
Pun was one of the three British Gurkha soldiers killed in Afghanistan’s southern province of Helmand on Tuesday when a NATO team was attacked by a rogue Afghan soldier.
Kinmaya (60) feels it hard to believe her ears. “I still think that my son will return home one day,” she cried. Relatives and close friends always believed that Pun was in the UK until they were informed of the tragic incident.
The death of Pun, who had not visited his family for two years, has left all in the village shell shocked. His friends are speechless. Friends and well wishers throng Pun’s house and have some words of consolation with immediate family members. “I thought my brother was in the UK,” said Pun’s sister Khim Devi, wiping tears from her swollen eyes.
Though the family members heard the news of the Afghan attack the very day, they did not believe that Pun was dead until his father Yam Bahadur Pun telephoned his brother in London.
“We encouraged him to join the British Army when he was just in the ninth grade. Joining the British Army has been a part of our culture for years. But we never imagined such an incident would happen,” Yam Bahadur said.
Posted on: 2010-07-16 08:54
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