Where grief lives on: At a Jammu chowk, a mother's love keeps her martyred BSF son's statue warm

Border Security Force constable Gurnam Singh

• Gurnam Singh's mother blankets his statue each winter in RS Pura, Jammu.
• The gesture moved locals and social media, highlighting a mother's enduring love
• Constable Singh, killed in 2016, awarded President’s police medal for gallantry.

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At a small roundabout in the RS Pura sector of Jammu, a statue enclosed in glass quietly draws the attention of those who pass by. Draped in a winter blanket, it does not resemble a formal memorial so much as a tender, living presence. The figure is of Border Security Force constable Gurnam Singh, who was killed in action in 2016. For his mother, Jaswant Kour, the statue is not stone or metal, it is her son.

Residents say the elderly woman comes to Shaheed Gurnam Chowk almost every day. Her routine is simple and unchanging. She wipes the glass case, cleans the pedestal, and makes sure there is no dust. Often, she sits with his photograph resting in her lap, as though time has folded back on itself.

Some weeks ago, as winter deepened, she placed a blanket over the statue. Locals said the gesture was instinctive, a mother’s response to the cold. The sight stopped people in their tracks. Many who noticed it felt an unexpected heaviness in their chest.

“There were no speeches or ceremonies, only a mother’s instinctive gesture that spoke of love, loss, and remembrance,” said Sher Singh, a local resident.

Photographs of the statue wrapped in the blanket soon found their way onto social media, where they triggered an outpouring of emotion. Several messages reflected on how official honours and tributes, while important, cannot fully capture the quiet grief carried by families of those who die in uniform.

Gurnam Singh’s father, Kulbir Singh, echoed that sentiment while speaking to PTI. He said a parent’s bond with a child does not end with death. “A mother remains a mother; sometimes she weeps silently, and sometimes she gives up food,” he said.

He explained that covering the statue during winter has become a family practice. As temperatures drop, a warm blanket is placed over it for nearly four months, later replaced with a lighter covering when the season changes. The family, he added, continues to feel pride alongside their pain.

Constable Singh was 26 when he was killed by terrorists firing from across the border. He had been awarded the President’s police medal for gallantry. Two days before his death, he had confronted a group of six heavily armed infiltrators in the Hiranagar sector of Kathua district. Despite heavy gunfire and the use of rocket-propelled grenades, he shot dead one of the attackers and forced the others to retreat during the night of October 19 and 20, 2016.

Today, the blanket over his statue tells a story beyond bravery -- one of enduring love that refuses to fade.