The body of National Security Guard officer Lt Col Niranjan Kumar, who was martyred in an operation against terrorists at the Pathankot airbase, reached Bengaluru on Monday morning.
Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah paid tribute the departed soul at city's BEL Ground. Also, school children and people came to pay their homage.
The body is being taken to BEL grounds for the public to pay their last respects, Sivarajan said, adding that around 3 pm it will be flown to his Palakkad residence for the last rites.
"He was always interested in the army. I am proud of his sacrifice," the martyr's father, Sivarajan said.
Niranjan's sister said, "I look at him as Arjuna (3rd of the Pandava brothers) who fought for his karmabhoomi."
Fellow Army officers in uniform and many prominent and eminent personalities including Rajeev Chandrashekhar, MP, paid tributes to the martyr at his residence.
Thirty two-year-old Niranjan, who has his family in Bangalore, was commissioned in the Engineers Regiment of the Army in 2004.
He hailed from Palakkad in Kerala and is survived by his wife Dr Radhika and a 18-month-old daughter.
Niranjan, head of the elite bomb squad of the NSG, was killed while defusing an IED at Pathankot IAF base, yesterday. He was among seven security personnel killed in the terrorist attack there.
Niranjan’s mortal remains would be taken to his ancestral gome at Elambilassery in Palakkad district, Kerala for the last rites.
