Mortal remains of soldier killed in Pak shelling consigned to flames with full military honours

A young soldier, who succumbed to grievous injuries sustained in Pakistani shelling, was given a tearful adieu with hundreds of mourners joining his last rites in his village near the zero line here.

Rifleman Sunil Kumar (25) posted with 4-JAKLI (Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry regiment) was critically injured in cross-border shelling along the International border in RS Pura sector early Saturday and later breathed his last.

Coming from a military background with his two elder brothers also serving in the armed forces and his father an ex-serviceman, his relatives said that Kumar was inspired from a young age to join the army and serve the nation.

The majority of the inhabitants of his Triva village in the Arnia sector were shifted to safer places as a precautionary measure on May 8, a day after Pakistan started indiscriminately targeting forward villages along the Line of Control and international border in Jammu and Kashmir following Indian armed forces’ missile strikes on terror infrastructure in their country.

However, when the tricolour-wrapped coffin carrying the mortal remains of the braveheart was brought in a decorated Army vehicle to the village amid chants in praise of his sacrifice and the nation, hundreds of mourners also gathered there to bid a tearful adieu to him.

Emotional scenes were witnessed when his family members, including parents, requested the last glimpse of the martyred soldier.

The body was later taken to Parmandal, where the cremation took place with full military honours. “The entire village is in mourning as we lost a son of the soil who grew up in this border village and gave up his life in service of the nation,” former sarpanch Balbir Kour said.

Kumar was a gentleman and was supposed to get married soon, she said, adding that the entire village now stands with his family at this hour of grief.

However, she feels the nation lost an opportunity to bring Pakistan “to its knees” and safeguard the coming generations from the mischief of the neighbouring country.

“We have suffered a lot over the years...almost the entire village was evacuated, but we were looking for such a solution where we no longer had to shoulder the coffin of our youngsters or leave our homes again. We were expecting the government to teach Pakistan a lesson so that it can never think of indulging in terror acts to bleed India,” she said.