Along with the rest of the country, a group of unemployed youths of Pathsala in Barpeta district staged protest in the town on Monday against Pulwama terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir.
During the protest, the agitators burnt the Pakistani flag and expressed their angst and frustration over the deadly attack by terrorists belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammed on a CRPF convoy in which 44 jawans were killed on Thursday.
One of the victims of the attack, Maneshwar Basumatary (47), hailed from Assam.
He was a resident of Kalbari village under Tamulpur police station in Baksa district of Assam.
Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal has already announced a sum of Rs 20 lakh ex-gratia to the family of the martyred CRPF jawan Maneshwar Basumatary.
The mortal remains of Basumatary were brought to Guwahati by an IAF Dornier-228 aircraft from New Delhi around 6.19 pm on Saturday.
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At the Air Force Station in Borjhar, Assam chief minister Sonowal led the state in paying homage to CRPF jawan Basumatary.
Later, a Mi-17 helicopter took off with the body of martyr Basumatary at 7.50 pm from Borjhar to his native village.
The activists shouted slogans against Pakistan and asked the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government to provide them guns to retaliate and kill Pakistani terrorists.
The unemployed youths were also joined by many businessmen of Pathsala town in the protest against the Pulwama attack.
Meanwhile, the Bharat bandh, called by the traders’ body Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) on Monday to express solidarity with the families of 44 CRPF jawans martyred in the Pulwama terror attack, was also observed at Pathsala.
The commercial markets and the shops remained closed in the town on the day.
In the well-planned terror attack on a CRPF vehicle that was part of a 70 vehicle convoy, a vehicle-borne improvised explosives device was used by the terrorists.
The convoy was on the Srinagar-Jammu highway and was on its way to Pulwama when a suicide bomber belonging to terrorist outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad drove an explosive-laden SUV into the bus.
The SUV was carrying explosives weighing nearly 300 kg.