Maharashtra village bids tearful adieu to martyred son

Jawan Kiran Thorat was killed in firing by Pakistani soldiers in Poonch

Wife of the Kiran Thorat, during the last rites in Vaizapur village in Aurangabad on Friday.

Pune: In Marathwada’s second military funeral in a little over a week, Jawan Kiran Thorat, who was killed during firing by the Pakistan Army in Poonch earlier this week, was cremated with full military honours at his ancestral village in Aurangabad district on Friday.

A mournful congregation numbering thousands gathered to pay their last respects to the brave heart who succumbed to his injuries following “unprovoked and indiscriminate firing” by the Pakistan Army in Poonch’s Krishna Ghati sector on Wednesday. Thorat’s mortal remains were brought from Aurangabad town to his village of Fakirabad Wadi (in Vaijapur Tehsil) at 11. 30 a.m.

Impassioned scenes of grief were witnessed as a massive crowd followed the funeral cortege from Mhasoba Chowk to his home in Vaijapur chanting “Kiran

bhau amar rahe (Long Live Kiran Thorat)”. Many recalled Jawan Thorat’s unassuming, earnest and gentle persona.

His family, including his parents and brother, are farmers. The 31-year-old soldier had completed 11 years of service in the Army.

Thorat’s parents, elder brother Amol, wife Aarti alongwith their two young children — a three-year-old girl and a two-year-old boy — were inconsolable as his body was laid on the funeral pyre. His final rites were performed with military solemnity in the afternoon.

Marathwada has lost her second son in the line of duty in eight days. Sepoy Shubham Mustapure (20) of Parbhani district fell in the Poonch sector on April 3 as Pakistani troops fired mortar bombs at forward posts in the area.