From Our Correspondent
GUWAHATI: As part of the countrywide protest against the dastardly killing of 49 CRPF jawans by Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e- Mohammad, traders in main business hubs in the city kept their shutters down on Saturday while lighting candles in the evening to pay respects to the martyred jawans.
Trading came to a grinding halt at Fancy Bazar, Paltan Bazar, part of the G S Road and Ganeshguri areas in the city as the traders hit the street against the killing of CRPF men and demanding that government teach a lesson to the perpetrators of the dastardly attack. The slain CRPF jawans included one Maneswar Basumatary from Tamulpur in Assam.
The protesting traders took out a march along the arterial G S road in the city in the afternoon.Residents and traders of Fancy Bazar locality took out a protest march earlier on Saturday shouting ‘Pakistan Murdabad’, ‘JeM Murdabad’. The protesters burnt the Pakistani flag and effigy of JeM chief Massod Azhar. On the other hand, the mortal remains of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawan, Maneshwar Basumatary (47), who died during Pulwama attack in Jammu & Kashmir, landed at the Borjhar-based Air Force Station in Guwahati in the evening on Saturday. The body of the martyr was received at the airport by Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal and state finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in presence a huge gathering. Chief minister Sonowal and minister Sarma also carried the coffin of the martyred CRPF jawan at the Air Force Station in Borjhar here on Saturday along with others.