Killed in Kargil: Widow seeks help in recovering awards

Accuses brother-in-law of swindling cash, property, gallantry award

ABBOTTABAD: The widow and other family members of a soldier who was killed in the Kargil War have accused his brother of defrauding them of cash and other valuables.

Speaking to the media, in Abbottabad. On Tuesday, Sepoy Muhammad Hussain Shah’s widow, Mehr Bibi, said that her husband had been awarded 100 kanals of land in Multan along with Rs126,000 and a medal for gallantry (Tamgha-e-Shujaat) after he was killed in the 1999  Kargil war.

Mehr bibi said that since her two daughters and a son were too young at the time of their father’s death, her brother-in-law Akbar Hussain Shah, a retired army official, became their guardian and dealt with all legal matters. In this regard, Akbar helped Mehr sort out documents for property, pension and other matters.



Mehr, said that when she told Akbar in 2010 to hand over the documents, cash award and pension, he told her that the cash was in a fixed deposit which would be paid to her son after a set time period. However, Mehr, claimed that Akbar had withdrawn the entire award from the bank fraudulently without her knowledge since she was illiterate.

Upon discovering what had transpired, Mehr complained to the family elders after which Akbar handed over the pension book but kept the records of the fixed deposit and the gallantry award. She said that Akbar never took her for taking possession of the land and thus has no knowledge whether the land awarded was still in her name or had been sold.

She urged the Chief of Army Staff and Gilgit-Baltistan police chief to help her recover her property.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 5^th, 2016.