Pulwama Terror Attack: Two Odia Martyrs Cremated With Full State Honours

Bhubaneswar: The mortal remains of two Odia bravehearts, who laid down their lives in a terror attack in Pulwama sector in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday evening, were consigned to flames at their native villages on Saturday night with full state honours. Thousands of people bade a tearful adieu to their beloved sons of the soil.

The bodies of the two CRPF jawans— Prasanna Sahu of Parisikhar village under Naugan block in Jagatsinghpur district and Manoj Kumar Behera of Ratanpur village of Niali block in Cuttack district arrived at Biju Patnaik International Airport in Bhubaneswar in the afternoon in a special Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopter.

Several political leaders who were present at the airport, including Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Finance Minister Sashibhushan Behera, Health Minister Pratap Jena and Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Jual Oram, Director General of Police (DGP) R.P. Sharma, Police Commissioner Satyajit Mohanty, CRPF IG Bhitul Kumar and other senior CRPF officials offered a floral tribute. The bodies, after being given the guard of honour, were later taken in a military van to the two native villages.

While Jual Oram and Pratap Jena were present during the cremation of Manoj Behera, Dharmendra Pradhan and Sashibhushan Behera were present during the cremation of Prasanna Sahu.

Earlier in the day, the Chief Minister had announced an ex-gratia of Rs 25 lakh each to the family of the two martyrs. He also promised that the state government will bear the total expenditure of education of the children of the two martyrs, declare their village as a model village and name schools after the martyrs.

Meanwhile, the IPS Association of Odisha, in a meeting later in the day decided to donate one-day’s salary of the officers to the welfare fund of the Director General, CRPF to provide financial assistance to the family of the martyrs.