Emotional send-off to 8 martyred CRPF men

NL Correspondent

SRINAGAR: Emotional scenes were witnessed on Sunday at CRPF centre in Humhama when eight CRPF personnel, who were killed by militants on Saturday, were send-off.

Eight CRPF men were killed by militants in an ambush at Pampore on Saturday in which 22 CRPF personnel also got injured.

Emotional scenes were witnessed on Sunday, when the CRPF personnel drove the coffins, draped in National Flag in vehicles, kept them in a row and then floral wreaths were laid on them.

Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti visited the CRPF centre in Humhama and paid homage to the martyred personnel. She laid ceremonial floral wreath on their mortal remains of the soldiers. Deputy Chief Minister, Dr Nirmal Singh, Minister for Health and Medical Education, Choudhary Lal Singh, Minister for Animal and Sheep Husbandry, Abdul Ghani Kohli, Minister of State for Tourism and Education, Ms Priya Sethi, Legislator, Choudhary Sukhnandan Kumar, Chief Secretary, B R Sharma and Director General of Police, K Rajendra Kumar also laid the wreath at the mortal remains of the martyred CRPF personnel.  The wreath laying ceremony was attended by top officers from police and CRPF.

Chief Minister expressed solidarity with the Special Director General CRPF, who was present at the wreath-laying ceremony. She also expressed solidarity with the families of the deceased CRPF personnel and prayed for peace to the departed souls. “My heart goes out to the families of the CRPF men killed in the gruesome attack,” she said.

Recalling the sacrifices of the security forces in combating militancy in the state, Mehbooba said such dastardly acts of senseless violence are against the basic tenets of humanity and they should be condemned by one and all.

“I fail to understand how somebody can indulge in such senseless acts of blood-letting in the name of Islam and that also in holy month of Ramadhan, which is the month of peace and blessings for the people,” she said and added that how can somebody even think of bringing anguish to the lives of families whether of security forces personnel or civilians. “Violence is unacceptable in any way and for any reason,” she said.

The Chief Minister said such attacks are desperate attempts by the militants to derail the peace and reconciliation process started by the state government. She urged people to isolate the perpetrators of violence as they have brought immense miseries to the people.