Emotional scenes were witnessed on Sunday when toddlers participated in the wreath-laying ceremony along with kin of the four Army men, who were killed in ambush by terrorists at Rajouri.
The relatives of the fallen soldiers arrived from Chamoli and Pauri Gharwal in Uttrakhand, Kanpur in UP and Nawada in Bihar to offer tributes to them.
The four soldiers were killed on Thursday when terrorists ambushed two Army vehicles at Dera-ki-Gali in the Rajouri Sector and later mutilated their bodies.
The Army identified them on Sunday as Naik Birender Singh (Chamoli), Rifleman Gautam Kumar (Pauri Gharwal), Naik Karan Kumar (Kanpur UP) and Rifleman Chandan Kumar (Nawada, Bihar).
Northern Army Commander, Lt General Upendra Dwivedi led the wreath-laying ceremony. He interacted with the kin of the martyrs after they paid floral tributes at the wreath-laying ceremony.
Later, their mortal remains were dispatched to their hometowns in helicopter.
General Officer Commanding of Nagrota-based White Knight Corps, Lt General Sandeep Jain, Deputy Commissioner, Rajouri, Vikas Kundal, Senior Superintendent of Police, Rajouri, Amritpal Singh and other officers and ranks of the Army also paid floral tributes.
Mobile internet services remained suspended in the twin districts for the second day.
A massive search operation to track down the terrorists who fled after the ambush continues in the thickly forested area of Surankot and Thanamandi and other areas of the border districts of Rajouri and Poonch.
The Army, along with paramilitary forces and police, are searching the forest area and the natural caves but success has eluded them so far.
It is believed that the terrorists were trained in ambushing security forces and guerrilla warfare.
Lt. General Dwivedi recently said that the terrorists operating in Rajouri and Poonch might be ex-soldiers of the Pakistan Army.
It is worth mentioning that while Pakistan has revived terrorism in Rajouri and Poonch after 20 years of peace, involvement of local youth has so far not been seen. Pakistani terrorists were involved in violent incidents in the two districts.