The last rites of a CRPF trooper from Karnataka, killed in the Pulwama attack, were held on Saturday at his native village in Mandya district with full honours as thousands bid tearful adieu.
H. Guru's body, brought in an Indian Air Force AN-32 transport aircraft from Delhi, landed at the HAL airport and was driven in a flower-bedecked military truck to Gudigere village in Mandya, about 100km from here.
Guru, 33, was among the 49 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers who died on Thursday in Kashmir's Pulwama district in a terror attack on a bus in which they were travelling in a convoy to Srinagar from Jammu.
Thousands of people gathered en route from Bengaluru to Mandya as the military vehicle passed.
Guru's mortal remains were first taken to his residence in the village and later shifted to an open ground on the outskirts for cremation, which was delayed by over two hours.
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Family members, including his widow Kalavathi, father Honnaiah, mother Chikka Thayamma, and younger brothers Madhu and Anand broke down at the sight of the body.
Union Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda, Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, Deputy Chief Minister G. Parameshwara, senior BJP leader S.M. Krishna, MP Shobha Karandlaje, state Ministers and CRPF officials paid their tributes to Guru and laid wreaths on his body.
After a gun salute by the state police as a mark of respect and playing of National Anthem and sounding of bugles, Guru's younger brother Madhu lit the funeral pyre amid chants of 'Bharat Mata ki jai'.
People from across the district thronged to the village for the state funeral.
Guru belonged to the 82nd Battalion of the CRPF and was posted in Srinagar.
The Chief Minister has assured the bereaved family of providing a government job to Kalavathi and compensation of Rs 25 lakh for his supreme sacrifice in the service of the nation.
According to his relatives, Guru was at home last week on leave and left for Kashmir on February 11.
Guru had joined the CRPF in 2011.
--IANS
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