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Naik Birendra Singh (33) was cremated on the banks of Triveni Sangam — the confluence of three rivers — in Narayanbagar while Rifleman Gautam Kumar (28) was consigned to flames at Muktidham on the banks of the Khoh river in Kotdwar. Their elder brothers lit the funeral pyres.
Kumar was to get married in March next year.
Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami laid wreaths on the mortal remains of the two soldiers at the Jolly Grant airport here and said, ”The sacrifice made by our soldiers for the defence of the nation will continue to inspire us all.” Consoling the bereaved family members, he said the state government stands with them in this hour of grief. Before the cremation, Naik Birendra Singh’s mortal remains were kept at the GIC courtyard in Narayanbagar and rifleman Gautam Kumar’s body was kept at his home in the Shivpur area of Kotdwar for people to pay their last respects. Kotdwar MLA and Uttarakhand Assembly Speaker Ritu Khanduri visited Gautam Kumar’s home to lay a wreath on his coffin wrapped in the national flag. Five soldiers were killed and two injured when heavily armed terrorists ambushed two Army vehicles in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district on December 21, officials said, adding the bodies of two of the slain soldiers were mutilated.