The wreath laying ceremony of Major Mukund Vardarajan and sepoy Vikram Singh at Srinagar on Sunday.
The wreath laying ceremony of Major Mukund Vardarajan and sepoy Vikram Singh who were killed in the Shopian encounter in Jammu & Kashmir was held at Srinagar on Sunday morning. (
Read: Shopian encounter ends, all 3 militants killed)
Their bodies will be flown out of Srinagar to their respective hometowns. While Major Vardarajan's body will be sent to his home in Chennai, Sepoy Vikram Singh's body will be sent to his home in Haryana.
Both leave behind wives and children.
Major Varadarajan of the Rashtriya Rifles had passed out of the officers training academy in Chennai in 2004.
Security forces launched a search operation in Karewa Malino in Shopian, 55 km from Srinagar on Friday evening following information about presence of three militants - two locals and one foreigner. The militants were asked to surrender but they resorted to firing, triggering the gunfight.
The three militants, holed up in a house, were killed. Some arms and ammunition were also recovered from the scene of the encounter, a senior police official said.
Shopian is part of the Anantnag Parliamentary constituency and the encounter took place a day after militants carried out an attack on a polling party escorted by police and CRPF in the district at the end of the voting on Thursday.