Kanpur pays tearful farewell to Capt Ayush
Captain Ayush Yadav, who lost his life in a gunbattle with militants in Kupwara (Jammu & Kashmir) on Thursday, was cremated at Siddhnath ghat here with full military honours on Saturday.
Captain Yadav’s body was taken on a bedecked army vehicle from his residence to the cremation ground. Hundreds of people assembled on both sides of the road as the funeral procession of the young army officer passed by.
They hailed the gallantry of Ayush and shouted slogans against Pakistan. Students, teachers and staff members of St Joseph School, the alma mater of Ayush, joined the funeral procession.
People, including schoolchildren and NCC cadets, formed a three-kilometre-long human chain from the residence of Captain Ayush to the cremation ghat on both sides of the road. They showered rose petals on the army vehicle and shouted slogans like ‘Ayush zindabad’, ‘Ye balidaan nahin bekar jayega’ and ‘Jab tak Suraj Chaand rahega, Ayush tera naam rahega’.
The district magistrate paid floral tribute to Captain Yadav as a mark of state honour on behalf of the UP governor and the chief secretary.
Before the body was consigned to flames, a 21-gun salute was given in the honour of the army man.
Arun Kant Yadav, the emotionally broken father of Ayush, could not muster courage to perform ‘mukhagni’ (consigning the body to flames) after which Ayush’s cousins Abhishek, Major Yuvraj, Piyush, Manish and Mayank performed the last rites amidst the chants of holy mantras at around 11.30 am.
UP minister for industry Satish Mahana, BJP MP Devendra Singh Bhole, Samajwadi Party MLA Irfan Solanki, Congress MLA from Cantonment Suhel Ansari , Manindra Singh Bitta, district president of BJP Surendra Maithani, district president of Congress HP Agnihotri and the district president of SP Fazal Mehmood were present during the cremation.
Later, union minister Anupriya Patel met the bereaved family.
Besides the officials of the district administration, army officers including Brig Vinay Mohan Sharma, Col. Pulkit Khera and Col Kaushal were also present.