Balasore: A traumatised nine-year-old Tanuj was dumbfounded, just following the directions of his elders, as he lit the funeral pyre of his father, Prashant Satpathy, on Thursday morning. Prashant’s wife Priyadarshini was inconsolable, refusing to let relatives take the body to the crematorium and kept on hugging it as long as she could before fainting. Many of those waiting on the two sides of the road to the crematorium also broke down when they saw Tanuj throwing puffed rice while accompanying his father’s body as per the ritual.

Prashant, a native of Balasore district, was killed in the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam on Tuesday. Hundreds of people from far and wide had gathered at Ishani village in Remuna block to pay their respects to Prashant. Among them was a physically challenged man who was close to Prashant. Though he came to the village on a specially designed three-wheeler, he crawled to the crematorium from Prashant’s house as a mark of respect.

Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, Transport Minister Bibhuti Bhusan Jena and Balasore MP Pratap Chandra Sarangi were among those who accompanied Tanuj from his home to the crematorium, around a kilometre away.

Amid chants of ‘Jai Hind’ and ‘Prashant Satpathy Amar Rahe’, Tanuj lit the funeral pyre of his father. Prashant’s elder brother, Sushant, collapsed at the crematorium multiple times, watching the scenes in disbelief. The youngest of the three brothers, Jayant, said he would perform the nine-day rituals according to the customs, as Tanuj was too young to bear the pain of it all.

Prashant, 41, was an employee of the Central Institute of Petrochemicals Engineering & Technology. He went to Jammu and Kashmir with his wife and son on vacation.

The mortal remains of Prashant Satpathy arrived in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday night. Apart from Prashant’s wife Priyadarshani and son Tanuj, his younger brother Jayant and two other relatives -- Manoranjan Mohanty and Ratnashri Mohanty -- accompanied the body in the special flight that reached Bhubaneswar from Srinagar via New Delhi.