Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and Speaker Punjab Assembly Rana KP Singh shouldered the mortal remains of Sepoy Gajjan Singh, one of the five soldiers killed in Monday’s gunfight with terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir‘s Poonch district.

Sepoy Gajjan’s mortal remains were brought to his ancestral village Pachrande in Rupnagar district from Jammu by road.

Naib Subedar (Junior Commissioned Officer) Jaswinder Singh, Naik Mandeep Singh, Sepoys Gajjan Singh, Saraj Singh and Vaisakh H were critically injured after an Army search party came under attack from the terrorists in a densely-forested area.

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They later succumbed to their injuries. While the bodies of Jaswinder Singh, Mandeep Singh and Gajjan Singh would be taken to their respective hometowns in Punjab by road, the mortal remains of Saraj Singh from Uttar Pradesh and Vaisakh H of Kerala will be flown to their native places, officials had said on Tuesday. A wreath-laying ceremony was held in Rajouri to pay tributes to the fallen soldiers and the mortal remains of all the five soldiers, wrapped in the tricolour, were moved to Jammu.

Jammu and Kashmir Police said the terrorists had been present in the area for two to three months. Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Rajouri-Poonch range Vivek Gupta told reporters on Tuesday that the terrorists had been confined to a particular area. While the area’s terrain posed difficulties in carrying out the operation, it shall be taken “to a logical conclusion in the shortest time,” Gupta said.

Previous operations in the region had also taken certain time, but security forces were eventually successful in eliminating the terrorists, he added.

The youngest of four brothers, 27-year-old Gajjan had got married in February this year, according to news agency PTI.

The Punjab government on Monday announced an ex gratia of Rs 50 lakh and a government job each for the families of the three soldiers.