New Delhi: The name of Squadron Leader Ravi Khanna, who was shot dead along with three other Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel in Kashmir in 1990, has finally been put up on the National War Memorial after his wife Nirmal raised the issue last month.
IAF sources told ThePrint that a decision was taken last month and Khanna’s name has already been put up at the War Memorial, built by the Narendra Modi government around New Delhi’s India Gate as a tribute to all fallen soldiers since independence.
The three other IAF personnel to be killed in the attack were Corporal D.B. Singh, Corporal Uday Shankar and Airman Azad Ahmad.
Asked if the name of the other three IAF personnel will also go up on the War Memorial, an officer said: “Their names were already there. Somehow, by mistake, Squadron Leader Khanna’s name was not there.”
Speaking to ThePrint, Nirmal Khanna said she hasn’t received any official confirmation yet. “I came to know last evening when a local journalist called me,” she said, adding that it was indeed happy news. “I would like to go to Delhi and see the name of my husband up on that memorial.”
Nirmal, in an interview to Open magazine on 12 September, had wondered if her husband’s name was up on the War Memorial.
This led to a plethora of queries on social media and TV debates, with Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar taking up the matter with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who promised to look into the matter and correct any mistakes made.
Also read: Are you looking for someone you lost, Ma’am? They asked my mother at National War Memorial
Want to see Yasin Malik punished
Nirmal added that this was the first step, and she wanted to see “terrorist” Yasin Malik punished for killing her husband.
Squadron Leader Khanna and the other personnel were killed on 25 January 1990, when militancy in Kashmir was at its peak, in front of an Air Force Station, with Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Malik allegedly leading the attack. The attackers pumped 27 bullets into Khanna, besides injuring several other IAF personnel.
Malik’s trial resumed last month at the TADA (Terrorism and Anti-Disruptive Act) court in Jammu after a delay of almost three decades. He is currently lodged in Tihar Jail in connection with a terror-funding case being probed by the National Investigation Agency.
Also read: NIA summoned top Delhi cardiologist in ‘terror-funding case’, not for Article 370 remark
I think the important thing is to first punish Yasin Malik the murderer of countless people. How long before he is hanged .
What about the buther of Gujrat who is elected by the RSS ghanguhs as their PM?
How many innocent people are killed in last 2 months in Kashmir? There will be a revenge from them.
One by one last mistakes being corrected,can some body ask this to Congress why you missed the name even you ask same questions to B J P. But can be pardon as it corrected this mistake.