Union Minister, dignitaries and considerable number of people paid homage to the mortal remains of G. Subramanian, the CRPF soldier killed in a suicide bomb attack at Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir, at the airport here on Saturday.
The body, which reached the airport at 12.40 p.m., was kept there for around 20 minutes for the officials and public to pay their respects.
Union Minister of State for Finance and Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan, Member of Parliament of Madurai Constituency R. Gopalakrishnan, and Collector S. Natarajan placed wreaths on the mortal remains.
Later, Commissioner of Police of Madurai City S. Davidson Devasirvatham, Inspector General of Police (South Zone) K.P. Shanmuga Rajeswaran paid homage.
K. Balakrishnan, State secretary, Communist Party of India (Marxist), also paid his respects.
Later, around 200 people, a significant number of them belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party, paid homage to the mortal remains of the soldier with many raising ‘Bharat mata ki jai’ and ‘Vande mataram’ slogans. Some were seen bidding farewell to the slain soldier with tears.
The body was later taken by road to his native village of Saavalaperi in Tirunelveli district for final rites.
Condolence meeting
Meanwhile, Gujarati Samaj in Madurai organised a condolence meeting here on Saturday. Yagnesh Bhatt from the Samaj said that they felt it was their duty to honour the soldiers who had laid down their lives for the country. Men and women, including many who were not part of the samaj, spoke about the sacrifice made by the soldiers. All those who had gathered paid floral tributes to small coffins kept at the venue.
Thanjavur
Homage was paid to slain CRPF jawans in various parts of Thanjavur district on Saturday. While silent marches were taken out at Peravurani and Papanasam, floral tributes were paid to portraits of the slain jawans near Thanjavur New Bus Stand.
A silent march, taken out from New Bus Stand at Papanasam, culminated at the market area.
Another march began from Travellers Bungalow at Peravurani and ended at Vedantham Thidal.
