Not the first beheading: A soldier's widow tells of her grief after her husband's death was hushed up



While the entire nation was outraged over the Pakistani troops beheading Lance Naik Hemraj, there was one family that could actually feel the pain of the soldier's family.



Tears still well up in Bina Adhikari's eyes when she recalls her personal tragedy. Bina's husband, Havaldar J.S. Adhikari, was among the two soldiers killed and beheaded by the Pakistan Army's Border Action Team in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir on July 30, 2011.



As acknowledged by army sources, the beheading of Hemraj, near the Line of Control in Poonch on January 8, was not the first one.



Bina Adhikari's husband, J.S. Adhikari, (right) was beheaded by the Pakistani Army in July 2011

The government had hushed up the brutal killing of Adhikari and Lance Naik Devinder Singh, but Headlines Today has now managed to speak to the former's family.



Bina, who lives with her two children - aged 3 and 5 years - in a village in Uttarakhand's Haldwani district, spoke hesitantly about the incident.



"One phone call and that was it; our lives were shattered," Bina said.



She said she couldn't even get a last glimpse of her husband's body as the army refused to open the coffin.



The neighbours confirmed that they were told the body was being buried without its head. But no high profile leader visited the grief-stricken family to comfort them.

"The entire village was there but none of the senior official from the army or the government came to honour the braveheart," a neighbour said.



For Bina, life is a struggle without the support of her husband. She is dependent on his pension to sustain her family.



"When I saw the army chief as well as so many politicians visiting Hemraj's family in Mathura, I did feel that something similar could have happened to honour my husband," she said.



On being asked what she expected from the government, she said: "We have remained quiet since then and everything remains buried in my heart."



