Lakkidi, Wayanad: Thousands thronged to Lakkidi in Wayanad on Saturday to bid adieu to CRPF jawan V V Vasanthakumar, who died in the Pulwama terror attack.

The cremation of the martyred jawan was held with state honours at his ancestral home near Mukkamkunnu in Thrikkaipeta village on Saturday night.

The mortal remains of Vasanthakumar arrived at the Karipur airport near Kozhikode around 2.30 pm on Saturday and taken to Wayanad later. Thousands thronged to the Lakkidi Lower Primary School, Wayanad, to pay homage to the martyred jawan.

Union Minister Alphons Kannanthanam and state ministers E P Jayarajan, A K Saseendran, K T Jaleel also paid homage to Vasanthakumar at Lakkidi.

A funeral procession was held from the Lakkidi school to Thrikkaipeta village.

Lakkidi reflects the courage of its martyr

Vasanthakumar, a native of Lakkidi in Wayanad district, joined the CRPF in 2001 after completing pre-degree. He was deputed in Punjab until he was promoted as a hawildar last month. He came home on February 2 before he left for Kashmir to take up his new assignment. He had called up his mother two hours before the fatal blast.

He was the only son of Vasudevan-Shantha couple. Wife Sheena is a temporary employee at the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University. Anamika and Amardeep are their children. His father, Vasudevan, had died eight months ago.

Family members received an official confirmation from CRPF about Vasanthakumar at 4.30am Friday. Soon people started pouring in to the house near the veterinary university, Pookode. Banners were raised commemorating the brave soldier.

Even in the sorrow of losing its brave son, the small village in Lakkidi remains strong. The people here are proud to belong to the same village as the martyr.

Around 40 CRPF personnel were killed on Thursday in one of the deadliest terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir when a Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into their bus.

More than 2,500 CRPF personnel, many of them returning from leave to rejoin duty in the Valley, were travelling in a convoy of 78 vehicles when they were ambushed on the Srinagar-Jammu highway at Latoomode in Awantipora in south Kashmir.

The explosive laden car was driven into the bus that carried Vasanthakumar. Though news spread on social media, family members remained unaware. A friend of Vasanthakumar, who was in the convoy on another bus, called his brother-in-law but the news was kept from other family members until the official confirmation came.

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