Chingoli (Alappuzha), November 25
Amdist cries of “Maniappan amar rahe,” the body of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) driver Maniappan Raman Kutty, brutally killed by his Taliban captors in Afghanistan, was cremated with full state honours in his native village this evening.
Draped in the Tricolour, the 36-year-old Maniappan’s body arrived here in a flower bedecked hearse at about 5.30 pm from Thiruvananthapuram, where it had been brought in the morning from Delhi. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, his Cabinet colleagues, Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan and several other senior political leaders paid floral tributes to Maniappan in Thiruvananthapuram.
After being brought to his native village Chingoli, Maniappan’s body was kept at the Chooravila Government UP School and his wife Bindu’s house at Nanggarkulangara to enable thousands of people, who thronged this village.
The pyre was lit by Maniappan’s eight-year-old son Ajay in the compound of their residence.
— UNI
