Martyred BSF personnel's last rites held with full state honours

ROHTAK (HARYANA): The last rites of BSF head constable Rai Singh, who was injured in cross-border firing in Rajouri sector of Jammu and Kashmir, were held with full state honours at his native village Kheri Sampla here today.

As the 40-year-old's body wrapped in tricolour was brought in a bedecked vehicle, a large number of people from the village and neighbouring areas reached here to pay their last respects. His family and villagers demanded that Pakistan must be given a befitting reply.

Wreaths were laid and the martyr was given a gun salute by the BSF, which sounded the last post.


Rai Singh's eldest son lit the funeral pyre.

Haryana Ministers Manish Grover and Krishan Lal Panwar, former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, State Congress chief Ashok Tanwar and INLD's senior leader Abhay Singh Chautala were among those who paid their last respects.

The martyr is survived by his aged mother, wife and three sons. Singh's wife, Sunita, who had last seen her husband three months ago when he came home, was inconsolable.

Notably, Rai Singh is the third soldier from Haryana to be martyred within last one month.

Rai Singh was injured in shelling from the Pakistani side on November 20 night along LoC in Rajouri sector. He later succumbed to his injuries.

Nearly three weeks back, Mandeep Singh of the Army's Sikh regiment, was killed by militants in Macchil sector of Kupwara in Jammu and Kashmir. He hailed from Antehri in Kurukshetra district.

Barely week before Mandeep's martyrdom, BSF constable Sushil Kumar, who belonged to Pehowa in Kurukshetra district, was also martyred in Jammu district.