A tearful adieu was given to 26-year-old Sepoy Hari Singh Chauhan, a resident of Rajgarh village in Haryana’s Rewari district, who was martyred in an encounter with terrorists at Pulwama district in Kashmir in the wee hours on Monday.

His last rites were performed with full state honour at his native village on Tuesday.

His body, draped in the national flag, was brought in a bedecked army vehicle to his village Rajgarh as a large number of people paid their last respects to the soldier.

A pall of gloom descended in the village when body was brought in the village by an Army consignment.

The Army and police contingents presented the guard of honour to the martyr by reversing their arms, while hundreds of villagers gave a tearful farewell to the son of the soil.

Hari Singh, a Sepoy of the Rashtriya Rifles, is survived by his mother, wife, and a 10-month-old son. He had joined the Army in 2011 and was inducted in the 20th battalion of Army’s Grenadier regiment. His father Agadi Singh had also served in the Army.

Notably, three Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists were killed in a fierce 16-hour encounter in Pulwama on Monday, in which an Army major and four security forces personnel including Hari Singh had lost their lives.

On the behalf of Government, Union Minister Rao Inderjit Singh and Haryana Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma paid rich tributes to the martyr by laying floral wreath on his mortal remains. They also expressed his condolences to the bereaved family.

The villagers gathered at the site demanded that the Government should give a befitting reply to Pakistan as it was also clear who was behind the attack on CRPF convoy in Kashmir. Expressing condolences on the martyrdom of Sepoy Hari Singh, CM Manohar Lal said soldiers from Haryana have always made supreme sacrifices for the country.