Hubballi: For residents, of tiny Betadur village near Hubballi, it was a journey from despair to hope and then inconsolable grief when they heard that their beloved Lance Naik Hanumantappa Koppad, had lost the battle for life after surviving miraculously under the glacier in Siachen for six days.
The village was humming with prayers for the recovery of the brave soldier with schoolchildren and villagers making a beeline to the Veerabhadra temple and Siddaroodh Math. “We thought he would recover soon. We had even made arrangements to give him a rousing welcome as he had attracted the attention of the whole country for his courage,” Betadur villager Basangouda Patil said. But that was not to be!
Deputy commissioner, Rajendra Cholan said the soldier’s body would be placed for public viewing at the government primary school where he studied and also at the Nehru Stadium in Hubballi in the morning to allow people to pay their respects to him before his funeral is held near Betadur Gram Panchayat on Friday. Betadur village had prayed hard for the Lance Naik’s recovery. School children and villagers stayed awake praying for him the whole of Wednesday night and more prayers were offered in the morning at the Veerabhadra temple and Siddaroodh Mutt while Muslims held special prayers in the local mosque. The villagers were therefore devastated on hearing of his death. The soldier’s mother, wife and children flew to New Delhi Wednesday night.
Hanumantappa’s friends and classmates arrived in the village to offer their condolences and lecturers of the Pre-University college in Nulvi village where he had studied held a candlelight vigil to mark their mourning. Several politicians including Opposition leader, Jagadish Shettar visited the village to pay their last respects.
