A few hours before he got on the bus that was blown to pieces by a suicide bomber in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama, CRPF soldier Manoj Behera had called his wife in Odisha’s Cuttack district to ask about their daughter, born a year ago.

The 33-year-old CRPF soldier, the only son of his ageing parents, had spent two months in his Ratanpur village before joining the force back in January this year. He got married two years ago.

“He had come to his native village in Ratanpur in November last year to celebrate the first birthday of his daughter. Early on Thursday morning, he had called up his wife to tell her that he was travelling to Srinagar,” said Behera’s brother-in-law Debashish Behera.

“He had promised to call back after reaching. This morning, we had no courage to tell her that he is no more,” he said.

Behera had joined CRPF in 2006 and was posted in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya before being sent to Jammu and Kashmir three months ago. He was with the 61st battalion of CRPF.

Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik took to Twitter to express his condolence to the families of the two CRPF soldiers from the state who were killed in the Pulwama attack.

Prasanna Kumar Sahoo from the coastal district of Jagatsinghpur was another CRPF soldier from the state who died in the worst bombing in Kashmir in decades, claimed by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad.

“I am deeply saddened over the heart-wrenching martyrdom of two Odia CRPF jawans Prasanna Kumar Sahoo and Manoj Kumar Behera in the dastardly Pulwama terror attack. I convey my heartfelt condolences to the bereft family members and pray for the departed souls to Rest in Peace,” he tweeted in Odia.

First Published: Feb 15, 2019 15:26 IST