JAIPUR: A jawan of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) from Karauli was killed in an encounter with Naxals in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur district on Tuesday.
The jawan has been identified as 31-year-old Shivnarayan Meena who hailed from Kodiya village in Karauli district. His mortal remains were brought to his native village on Wednesday where he will be cremated with state honours on Thursday. Meena was part of the escort party which was accompanying a politician passing through the Naxal inflicted area and was killed on the spot during indiscriminate firing.
“Shivnarayan was part of the Road Opening Party (ROP) and they had left their base camp around 6 am and at 10 am, Naxals started firing indiscriminately at the team. Although our jawans also retaliated in kind, Meena sustained a bullet injury due to which he died on spot while another one of his colleagues was also injured. Unfortunately, the Naxals managed to escape,” said an official of ITBP.
Shivnarayan had joined the ITBP three years back and was posted in Chhattisgarh just few months ago, prior to which he was stationed in Shimla.
His father, Unkar Meena, said, “Before joining ITBP, my son prepared for the same for couple of years since he always wanted to join the forces. I spoke to him on Monday when he mentioned that he would come home next month for Rakshabandhan, but on Tuesday afternoon around 1 pm, I got a call that he had been killed in an attack. I am still finding it difficult to believe.”
Eldest of the two siblings, Shivnarayan was unmarried and is survived by his parents as well as younger brother. His mortal remains were flown from Raipur to Delhi from where they were brought to Karauli by road. The state political leaders took to social media to condole the jawan’s demise.
