Wife Nitika Kaul, family members of Major Vibhuti Dhoundiyal pay their last respects.
Uttarakhand on Tuesday again witnessed emotional scenes as thousands of people paid their last respects to Major Vibhuti Dhoundiyal who died in an encounter with terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama. The killing of a top Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist yesterday came at a huge price as it claimed the lives of four soldiers and a police constable.
Uttarakhand had barely laid to rest one of its braves who died on the Line of Control over the weekend, when it received the news of Major Dhoundiyal's death.
At his residence in Dehradun, his mother Saroj, a cardiac patient, his wife Nikita Kaul broke down near Major Dhoundiyal's coffin, where people are pouring in to catch a last glimpse before it being taken to Haridwar for the last rites.
Army personnel and people gather around the mortal remains of Major Vibhuti Shankar Dhoundiyal.
Married less than a year ago, Ms Kaul was seen in video saluting her husband.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat expressed grief at the death of Major Dhoundiyal and placed a wreath on the coffin amid cries of "Shaheed Dhoundiyal Amar Rahein" and "Vande Mataram".
Major Vibhuti Dhoundiyal wife Nikita Kaul was seen in video saluting her husband.
Major Dhoundiyal's body was brought home late on Monday night draped in the Indian flag.
On Saturday, Major Chitresh Bisht, an officer from the Corps of Engineers, was killed while defusing a mine on the Line of Control in Nowshera sector of Rajouri district. He was cremated in Haridwar on Monday afternoon.
The others soliders killed in operation were Sepoy Hari Singh, 27, Havaldar Sheo Ram, 37, and Sepoy Ajay Kumar, 27. Head Constable Abdul Rashid Kalas died of his wounds later.
Today, Lieutenant General Kanwal Jeet Singh Dhillon, Corps Commander of Chinar Corps during a joint briefing by the army, the CRPF and the Jammu and Kashmir police said terrorists had been killed in "less than 100 hours" after the Pulwama terror attack, in which over 40 soldiers were killed by a suicide bomber.
(With inputs from PTI)