Zee Media Bureau
Patna: In what can bring in huge embarrassment for Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, none of the Janata dal (United) leaders were present at the airport when the bodies of the four soldiers, who were killed allegedly by the Pakistani troops on Tuesday near the Line of Control (LoC) were brought here Wednesday night.
Interestingly, several Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members were seen present at the airport to receive the bodies of the martyred soldiers killed in Poonch district in Jammu and Kashmir.
Nitish Kumar had announced a state funeral for the martyrs and a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the families of the martyred soldiers.
Five Indian soldiers were killed allegedly by the Pakistani troops on Tuesday. While four soldiers belonged to Bihar one hailed from Maharashtra. Of the four, Vijay Kumar Rai belonged to Bihta in rural Patna, Shambhu Sharan Singh hailed from Bhojpur district and Premnath Singh and Raghunandan Prasad were natives of Saran district.
Earlier the Army and Air Force officers paid tribute to the soldiers martyred in the Poonch LOC incident at Palam IAF station in Delhi.
The soldiers killed belonged to the 21 Bihar regiment battalion and Maratha Light Infantry battalion. They were deployed in Sarla area along the LoC near Chakan-Da-Bagh in Poonch sector in Jammu region.
The recent incident has heightened tensions between the neighbours at a time when Pakistan's new government is trying to improve relations with India and to resume the official dialogue.
First Published: Wednesday, August 7, 2013, 19:04
