Pride & pain: Only child Murali Naik killed at LoC
MUMBAI:/TIRUPATI: Parents of 23-year-old M Murali Naik, who was killed in the
cross-border firing
at the
Line of Control
(LoC) in J&K at 3am on Friday, were devastated after receiving news of their son's death.
"We are proud that he was martyred while protecting the country, but as parents, we have paid a huge price. He was our only child and we have lost him," said Murali's father, Shriram, who moved to Mumbai 30 years ago in search of a better livelihood and lives in Ghatkopar's Kamraj Nagar with his wife Jyoti.
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He was at his hometown in Kallithanda village in Sri Sathya Sai district of Andhra Pradesh for an event when the family was informed of Murali being shot.
Murali spoke to his parents on a video call at around 8am on Thursday. "He had just returned from duty and was still in his uniform. He said he had to go back in the evening. We asked him if he had had his breakfast and that was the last time we saw his face," said Shriram. After hearing the news of his shooting, his parents fainted.
The neighbourhood in Kamraj Nagar was in mourning on Friday after learning that Murali had been shot at during the cross-border firing and died while being shifted to the hospital. Laxman Naik, his maternal uncle, said he was selected as an Agniveer-among the first batch of the central govt recruitment scheme for armed forces.
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Read More Atri Mitra is a Special Correspondent of The Indian Express with more than 20 years of experience in reporting from West Bengal, Bihar and the North-East. He has been covering administration and political news for more than ten years and has a keen interest in political development in West Bengal. Atri holds a Master degree in Economics from Rabindrabharati University and Bachelor's degree from Calcutta University. He is also an alumnus of St. Xavier's, Kolkata and Ramakrishna Mission Asrama, Narendrapur. He started his career with leading vernacular daily the Anandabazar Patrika, and worked there for more than fifteen years. He worked as Bihar correspondent for more than three years for Anandabazar Patrika. He covered the 2009 Lok Sabha election and 2010 assembly elections. He also worked with News18-Bangla and covered the Bihar Lok Sabha election in 2019. ... Read More
