CRPF soldier’s elder daughter lights pyre as thousands mourn. She is 10

Supriya, wearing a pink sweater to shield her from the nippy weather, also walked beside her father, carried from the family home to the cremation ground; the coffin draped in the national flag.

She needed a bit of help, but Supriya did it. But there was a limit to how much this 10-year-old could take. Supriya Singh fainted soon after she lit her father’s pyre. She was rushed to a hospital.

CRPF soldier’s elder daughter lights pyre as thousands mourn. (HT Photo)

Pradeep Kumar was in the CRPF bus going from Jammu to Srinagar that was bombed by Jaish terrorists on Thursday. Like Pradeep Kumar, most of the 2,500 personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force in the bus were returning to their posts in Jammu and Kashmir after spending time with their family. Pradeep Kumar had taken a month off.

That was the last time Supriya saw her father.

This time, he was back in a coffin. As it reached Kannauj this morning, thousands joined his last journey.

On Thursday afternoon, Pradeep Kumar, 30, was on the phone with his wife Neerja. He was inquiring about his younger daughter, Manya. Neerja had just started talking about the younger one when the call got disconnected.

When she tried calling back, she got the message that the phone had been “switched off”.

Then she saw news on television channels about the terror attack.

Pradeep Kumar was among the 40 CRPF soldiers killed in the suicide attack in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district. Eleven other soldiers from Uttar Pradesh were among those on the bus that was ripped apart by the bomb.