In about a month’s time, after the elections are over in Maharashtra, a memorial to Sepoy Bhausaheb Talekar of the 17 Maratha Light Infantry will be inaugurated at his parents’ village in Kolgaon, in the Srigonda taluka of Ahmednagar district.

Talekar was killed brutally on the Line of Control by HuJI commander Ilyas Kashmiri, who is said to have presented the Indian soldier’s head to General Pervez Musharraf and received a reward of Rs 1 lakh for it. Kashmiri — who according to some reports was also a Pakistan Special Services Group commando — was killed in an American drone attack earlier this month.

Despite being home to around 400 serving and nearly 350 retired Army personnel, not many in Kolgaon know of Kashmiri’s death. Everyone remembers the day Talekar’s body was brought here, though.

“He was covered in the Indian flag. We were told his face was mutilated, some limbs were missing, that the body was not in a condition to be unveiled,” says Meena, Talekar’s sister.

Meena had wanted to see her brother’s face once before he was cremated. The Army declined, and the Talekars accepted the decision unquestioningly. Villagers say the family did not know the 24-year-old had been beheaded.

To some in Kolgaon, Kashmiri’s death makes up — to a very small extent — for the terrible death of Talekar. “It is some sort of revenge,” says Sarpanch Hemantrao Nalgi. “We had read reports about Musharraf rewarding a terrorist for an Indian soldier’s death. We did not know it was for Bhausaheb.”

... contd.