With tears in his eyes, Lt Colonel P L Choudhury on Tuesday bid farewell to his eldest son, Captain Sunil Kumar Choudhury, who died fighting ULFA militants in Assam a day after being awarded the Sena Medal for gallantry. Captain Choudhury’s body was cremated with full military honours at his native village of Joginder Nagar, nearly 100 km from Jammu, this morning, in the presence of hundreds of people.Many broke down as family members kept the clothes and other bridal finery that Choudhury was to wear on his wedding day, less than two months away, near the pyre. His fiancee, Monika, who had come along with her parents from Jammu, fell on the coffin. Lt Col Choudhury recalled that the last time he talked to his son was on Saturday. Choudhury said he was in a hurry as he had to go on some operation. “As he did not ring up at night, I thought the operation might have lasted long. I did not ring up next morning thinking that he might be asleep. In the afternoon, I received a call from the Army saying he was dead,” said the father.Choudhury died leading a joint operation against a group of five ULFA militants hiding in a village in the Kakopathar area close to the Arunachal border. Two of the militants were killed by Choudhury and his men.The Captain had been awarded the Sena Medal for a previous operation against the ULFA in the same area.His father recalled that before he joined the IMA at Dehradun, Choudhury had been pursuing MBA. He got motivated to join the Army after reading about Param Vir Chakra awardee Captain Manoj Pandey, who died during the Kargil War. Choudhury’s younger brother, Flight Lieutenant Ankur Choudhary, talked about his zest for life. “He had so many plans. he wanted to go to Goa.,” he said. The last time he talked to him, Ankur added, was when he called him up to congratulate him on his Sena Medal. “He was bothered about his havildar who had also participated in the operation along with him.” He was concerned that he had not got any medal.
