Salatwada looked gloomy throughout Wednesday. The sacrifice of Sepoy Diwakar Faltankar while fighting with terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir on Monday was the talk of the town throughout the day. Barodians, who felt sad at the death of the soldier, also felt proud that somebody from their city had become a martyr by trying to defend the unity of the country.
People from different parts of the city were seen visiting the house of the dead solider at Tulsibai ni chal in Salatwada area since Wednesday morning. They met the family members of the martyr and offered their condolences.
People were seen enquiring about the arrival of the body at the funeral procession. People also called up media houses to get the latest information about the martyr. On Wednesday, some youth associations put up hoardings at market places to pay homage to the martyr.
While garba organisers in Salatwada voluntarily cancelled garba for three days - from Tuesday to Thursday - to homage to the martyr, organisers at other venues maintained one minute silence before starting garbas on Tuesday night. The news of Diwakar's sacrifice had already spread in most of the areas in the city on Tuesday night.
According to sources, commercial establishments at Salatwada and surrounding areas will voluntarily remain closed on Thursday.
On Wednesday night, the body of the martyr was brought to Vadodara and taken directly to EME hospital. The body will be brought to Tulsibai ni chal on Thursday morning, where it will be kept for people to pay their last respects to the soldier. The funeral procession will start thereafter.
Diwakar was a soldier with Rashtriya Rifles, a counterinsurgency force under the ministry of defence. He was posted at Baramulla. Diwakar had joined the force about six years ago and was married just seven months back.
His regiment had received information on Monday that some terrorists were hiding at Ladu area, under the jurisdiction of Panjla police station. On the basis of the information, Diwakar, accompanied by his colleagues, reached the spot and cordoned off the area.
Once the area was cordoned off, the terrorists started firing at the soldiers. Though the soldiers retaliated, three of them - Diwakar, Lance Naik Bharat Singh and Riflemen Ram Sharma - were severely injured. All the three soldiers were shifted to a hospital at Srinagar, about 60km from the spot. And Diwakar died during treatment on Monday evening.
