A pall of gloom descended as the mortal remains of the soldiers who were killed by Chinese troops during clashes were taken to their native places on Wednesday night.
Mortal remains of Colonel Bikkumalla Santosh Babu arrived at his residence in Vidyanagar in Telangana yesterday night. The emotionally-charged crowd was seen holding national flags and raising slogans of "Santosh Babu amar hai" as the tricolor-wrapped coffin was brought out of the ambulance by army personnel.
Similar scenes were seen in Bihar when the mortal remains of Havildar Sunil Kumar were brought by a special aircraft. In Samastipur district, family members of Sepoy Aman Kumar Singh were shocked to hear that the jawan, who got married only last year, had laid down his life. In Chakfatah village of Vaishali district, the mother of Jai Kishor Singh has been inconsolable since she learned that her younger son, who joined the Army two years ago, has been killed in Ladakh.
Nimindra Yadav of Saharsa who lost his son Kundan Kumar in the clash also broke down. Survived by wife and two sons aged eight and four years, Kundan Kumar had joined the Army in 2012.
Jharkhand grieved the loss of Kundan Kumar Ojha and Ganesh Hansda. A large number of people assembled and shouted anti-China slogans in sepoy Ankush Thakur's Karohta village in Hamirpur district of Himachal Pradesh. The 21-year-old was recruited in the Punjab Regiment in 2018 and was a third-generation soldier.
Among those killed, five soldiers were from Bihar, four from Punjab, two each from Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal and one each from Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Telangana.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has announced Rs 25 lakh each as ex-gratia to the families of two slain soldiers from the state. Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh declared an ex-gratia compensation of up to 12 lakh, along with a government job to a next of kin of the deceased. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh and a government job for kin of each of the two soldiers from the state. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami had announced a solatium of Rs 20 lakh to the family of K Pazhani of Kadukkalur village in Ramanathapuram district.
20 SOLDIERS WHO LOST LIVES FIGHTING THE CHINESE IN GALWAN VALLEY:
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