Moments after he'd hoisted the flag at the 49th battalion camp in the Karan Nagar area on August 15 last year, Commandant Pramod Kumar took a bullet to his head when terrorists opened fire on his patrol party.
A year later, Pramod Kumar's wife Neha Tripathy and daughter Aarna performed the ceremonial unfurling of the flag at the 49th battalion camp.
Neha Tripathy then performed the traditional drill of distributing sweets to the men of the battalion, once commanded by her husband. She also placed a wreath at the martyr's memorial built at the camp.
Kumar's wife had said that she wanted her daughter to know what her father did for the country and hence decided to mark his first death anniversary at the same camp where he took his last salute.
"I want my daughter to know what her father stood for and what he did. She should know that what is the importance of earning a Kirti Chakra. Hence, I made it a point to be on the same soil where my husband lost his life, to mark his first death anniversary," Neha Tripathy said.
Kumar (44) was on Monday decorated by the government with the Kirti Chakra (posthumously), the third highest peacetime gallantry medal.
On the last Independence Day, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) CO had hoisted the flag between 8.30 and 8.40am and in his speech remarked that with India clocking 70 years of its freedom, the responsibility on security forces has "increased" and they have to effectively tackle terrorists and incidents of stone pelting in Jammu and Kashmir.