Maharashtra martyr’s three-year-old daughter lights his funeral pyre

PUNE: Hundreds of people gathered at Vakhri village — near Pandharpur in Solapur district of Maharashtra — were moved when the three-year-old daughter of Major Kunal Gosavi, Umang, lit his funeral pyre on Thursday.

The braveheart was among seven jawans who were killed in a gun battle with terrorists in Nagrota Cantonment in Kashmir.

His body was flown in Pune on Thursday morning and later taken to Pandharpur where the last rites were performed with full military and state honour.

Umang along with her grandfather, Munnagiri, paid floral tributes and lit the funeral pyre, amid patriotic slogans raised by people who gathered from the surrounding villages.

Umang had spend almost a month at Pandharpur along with her father and mother, Uma, a few days back. Gosav left Pandharpur on November 26 to resume duty in Kashmir and made supreme sacrifice for the country three days later.

Thousands of people near the holy town of Pandharpur stood in queues to pay tributes to the officer. His body was kept in Pandharpur town for a few hours and was later taken to Vakhar village. The funeral procession took more than four hours to traverse 4km. All the activi ties in and around Pandharpur remained closed as a mark of respect to Gosavi.

Patriotic songs were played and rose petals showered when the procession passed from various roads in Pandharpur Some anti-pakistani slogans were also raised. Gosavi com pleted his school education from Pandharpur village and moved to Pune in 2000 for college. After completing his graduation in commerce, he joined the Army in 2006.