CHENNAI: A prayer-cum-candlelight meeting was held at Olcott Memorial School in Besant Nagar on Sunday evening for the 44 CRPF personnel killed in the Pulwama bomb attack.
The event was organised by the Colours of Glory Foundation, Chennai Trust and S Foundation in memory of those killed in the Pulwama terror attack.
“Through this meet, we are not looking at promoting nationalism, but rather at expressing solidarity with the armed forces,” said Captain DP Ramachandran, founder and managing trustee of the Colours of Glory Foundation. “People must feel confident and proud about our armed forces. We needed an incident like this to wake up and I hope that it is not forgotten in a few days.” For 74-year-old Professor RNS Vyas, it was his ‘duty towards the nation’ which compelled him to attend the meet. “I heard about the meet randomly, while I was walking,” he said. “I made it a point to be here because it is our duty to come out in support when such things happen. It should come from within and spontaneously.”
Sarah, a BSc student, delivered a moving speech about how the incident changed her outlook. “I watched on TV how a girl my age was trying very hard not to cry when she had her father’s body in front of her. She was trying to be strong for him but then she broke down and when I saw that, I too broke down because I realised that her father sacrificed his life for me.”
Vasumathi of Thennai Trust, Faizoor Rahman, founder of Islamic Foundation for Moderate Thought and Sumathi, founder-trustee of S Foundation and KR Visweswaran, Wing Commander of the Air force were among those present.