Lt Colonel Niranjan's body brought to Bengaluru

Bengaluru, Jan 4: The body of Lieutenant Colonel E K Niranjan, a bomb expert with the National Security Guard who was killed while defusing a grenade at the scene of the terror attack at Pathankot IAF base, was brought here today. The last rites will be performed at his hometown Palakkad in Kerala later today.

"The body arrived at Bengaluru International Airport early this morning between 12.40 am and 1 am. We brought the body wrapped in the Indian Tricolor to our house," E K Sivarajan, the martyr's father, told reporters here.

The body is being taken to BEL grounds for the public to pay their last respects, Sivarajan said, adding that around 3 pm it will be flown to his Palakkad residence for the last rites. "He was always interested in the army. I am proud of his sacrifice," Sivarajan said.

Niranjan's sister said, "I look at him as Arjuna (3rd of the Pandava brothers) who fought for his karmabhoomi." Fellow Army officers in uniform and many prominent and eminent personalities including Rajeev Chandrashekhar, MP, paid tributes to the martyr at his residence.

Thirty two-year-old Niranjan, who has his family in Bangalore, was commissioned in the Engineers Regiment of the Army in 2004.

He hailed from Palakkad in Kerala and is survived by his wife Dr Radhika and a 18-month-old daughter. Niranjan, head of the elite bomb squad of the NSG, was killed while defusing an IED at Pathankot IAF base, yesterday. He was among seven security personnel killed in the terrorist attack there.

PTI