Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh pays respect to martyred jawans

As the last journey of the five jawans martyred in the Pakistani attack in Poonch began from Jammu, Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh on Wednesday laid wreaths on their bodies.

Soon after his arrival from New Delhi, Gen Singh laid wreaths on the coffins draped in the tri-colour at the TechnicalAirport in Jammu, Defence Spokesman S N Acharya said.

Besides him, senior Army officers of Northern Army theatre GOC-in-C Lt Gen Sanjeev Chachra, GOC, 16 Coprs Lt Gen D S Hooda, GOC, Tiger Division, Maj Gen Ashwani Kumar and Air Officer Commanding Air commodore P E Patagia also laid wreaths bidding adieu to the martyrs.

After placing the wreaths, the Army Chief and other officers stood in silence for sometime as a mark of respect to the soldiers.

The bugle played the last post and a contingent of the Army presented salute on the occasion.

"They would be flown around 3.45 pm today from Jammu to Delhi", a senior Army officer said.

The bodies would be later flown from Delhi to Patna and Pune in Air Force aircraft, he said, adding while four bodies would be flown to Patna and one would be taken to Pune.

In a provocative attack, a group of 20 heavily armed men led by Pakistani troops entered 450 metres into the Indian territory in the Poonch sector in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday and ambushed a patrol killing five Indian soldiers.

The five jawans martyred were 35-year-old Naik Prem Nath of Chappra (Bihar), 29-year-old Lance Naik Shambhu Saran of Bhojpur (Bihar), 27-year-old Sepoy Vijay Kumar Rai of Patna (Bihar), 23-year-old Sepoy Ragunandan of Chhapra (Bihar) and 36-year-old Naik Pundalik Mane of Kolhapur (Maharashtra).