Jammu/Jaipur: A soldier was killed when he was hit by a fragment of a Pakistani drone, which was successfully intercepted by the Army Air Defence at an air base in Udhampur district on Saturday, officials said.
India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire along the Line of Control and International Border on Saturday.
The soldier was on duty at the Udhampur air base, which came under Pakistani drone attack on Saturday.
“The Indian Air Defence successfully intercepted the drones in the air, but a jawan was hit by a fallen debris resulting in critical injuries to him,” the officials said, adding that he later succumbed to his injuries.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma paid rich tributes to the soldier and expressed sympathies with his family.
“The news of the martyrdom of Shri Surendra Singh Moga ji, a son of Rajasthan, a resident of Jhunjhunu, a soldier of the Indian Army, who attained martyrdom at Udhampur Air Base while performing his duty of national security is extremely sad,” he wrote on X.
Meanwhile, a young soldier, who succumbed to grievous injuries sustained in Pakistani shelling, was given a tearful adieu with hundreds of mourners joining his last rites in his village near the zero line here.
Rifleman Sunil Kumar (25) posted with 4-JAKLI (Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry regiment) was critically injured in cross-border shelling along the International border in RS Pura sector early Saturday and later breathed his last.
Coming from a military background with his two elder brothers also serving in the armed forces and his father an ex-serviceman, his relatives said that Kumar was inspired from a young age to join the army and serve the nation.
The majority of the inhabitants of his Triva village in the Arnia sector were shifted to safer places as a precautionary measure on May 8, a day after Pakistan started targeting forward villages along the Line of Control and international border in Jammu and Kashmir.
However, when the tricolour-wrapped coffin carrying the mortal remains of the soldier was brought in a decorated army vehicle to the village amid chants in praise of his sacrifice and the nation, hundreds of mourners also gathered there to bid a tearful adieu to him.
Emotional scenes were witnessed when his family members, including parents, requested the last glimpse of the martyred soldier.
The body was later taken to Parmandal, where the cremation took place with full military honours.
