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CRPF officer murdered 1 hour after hoisting flag
SRINAGAR/JHARKHAND: CRPF commandant Pramod Kumar unfurled and saluted the national flag at 8.29am on Independence Day and reminded his colleagues in the paramilitary
SRINAGAR/JHARKHAND: CRPF commandant Pramod Kumar unfurled and saluted the national flag at 8.29am on Independence Day and reminded his colleagues in the paramilitary force posted in restive Kashmir to uphold honestly the call of duty.
The officer went beyond the call of duty minutes later, leading his men in a fierce gun battle with militants holed up in Srinagar’s old city.
Around 9.30am, the 44-year-old Kumar lay motionless with fatal bullet wounds in the neck.
The commandant of the 49 Battalion of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) was rushed to the army base hospital in Srinagar.
He was in coma. By noon, he was declared dead.
His mortal remains were consigned to flames on Tuesday with state honours on the banks of river Ajay at Chittaranjan in West Bengal, three kilometres from his native home Mihijam in Jharkhand
His August 15 speech at the CRPF deputy inspector general’s office in the city’s Karan Nagar area reflected his thoughts. “We are not only faced with terrorism, but also stone pelting in Kashmir. I urge you to undertake the duties assigned to you honestly to uphold the country’s integrity, solidarity and freedom that we achieved after an immense struggle,” he said.
Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das condoled the commandant’s death. “I am deeply saddened. His martyrdom will not go waste,” Das said.
State agriculture minister Randhir Singh, Congress legislator Irfan Ansari, district administrative officers and locals flocked to the officer’s residence at Mihijam to pay their last tributes.
(With inputs from Rajesh Upadhyay)
