MP: CRPF jawan killed in Pulwama attack cremated with full state honours

CRPF jawan Ashwini Kumar Kachhi, who was killed in the Pulwama terror attack, was Saturday cremated with full state honours in Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur city amid the shouting of patriotic slogans by people.

The cremation took place in the jawan's native Khudawal village and Chief Minister Kamal Nath, former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan and a large number of people were in attendance.

The pyre of Kachhi (30) was lit by his elder brother Sumant, a relative said.

Villagers lined the streets as Kachhi's body was brought by road in a tricolour-wrapped coffin from Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh.

Local resident Vinay Asathi recalled Kachhi as an ever-smiling person who encouraged village youth to join the country's security forces.

Asathi claimed that Kachhi was the third martyr from the village, paramilitary troopers Rajendra Upadhyay and Rameshwar Patel being the others who laid down their lives in the line of duty.

Chouhan, who met Kachhi's family, told them that punishment would be meted out for the Pulwama attack.

Forty CRPF personnel were killed and five injured on Thursday when a suicide bomber struck their explosive-laden vehicle with a convoy in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir.