Bhubaneswar: Thousands of school and college students, along with their teachers and staff, observed two-minute silence as a mark of respect to the CRPF jawans Saturday who were martyred in a terrorist attack at Pulwama in Jammu & Kashmir.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had appealed to all educational institutions across the state to hold silent prayers in the honour of the slain jawans.
Two jawans from Odisha, Prasanna Kumar Sahu of Shikhar village in Jagatsinghpur district and Manoj Kumar Behera of Ratanpur village in Cuttack district, were martyred along with 41 other CRPF personnel on the fateful day.
The state government has announced an ex-gratia of Rs 10 lakh each for the families of the two CRPF jawans from the state.
Meanwhile, thousands of people assembled at the Biju Patnaik International Airport here to receive the mortal remains of the two martyrs. The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) also made elaborate arrangements to facilitate the people who came to pay homage to the slain jawans at the airport.
As per instructions given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, two Union ministers from Odisha – Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram and Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan — would attend the cremation of Manoj Kumar Behera and Prasanna Kumar Sahu, respectively.
PNN