Maoist bullets that rained on a patrol team of the BSF’s 114th battalion in Chhattisgarh on Thursday have robbed a family in Jharia of its main breadwinner.

Constable Md Ishrar Khan was among the four BSF personnel killed in the rebel ambush inside a dense forest near Mahla village in Kanker district in Naxalite-hit Bastar.

The bereaved family, which was planning a wedding for the 25-year-old, is now preparing to receive his body at their South Golakdih home in Tisra police station area on Saturday.

Ishrar’s body reached Ranchi from Raipur at 6pm on Friday and left for the BSF camp at Meru in Hazaribagh within an hour.

The body will arrive at Dhanbad around 7am on Saturday, where district administrative officials will offer a guard of honour before handing it over to the family. The last rites will the performed at the burial ground in Horladih.

A pall of gloom has descended on the family’s house after the news broke.

Bereaved family members of deceased Md Ishrar Khan at their house in Jharia, Dhanbad on Friday. Picture by Shabbir Hussain

Dhanbad SDO Raj Maheswaram and mayor Chandrashekhar Agarwal visited the house on Friday and consoled the family members, including Ishrar’s father Azad Khan, a hawker, his homemaker mother Khairunnisa, brothers Rinku, Pinku and Pintu Khan and sister Rubi Khatoon. While Rinku and Pinku repair leather bags, Pintu and Ruby are both students of RSP College in Jharia.

Ishrar’s father said his third son was the most talented. “He joined BSF in 2013. We are natives of Giridih. Our ancestors shifted to Jharia more than 70 years ago to work in coal mines here,” Azad said.

Ishrar’s inconsolable mother said he left home for duty on January 2 after spending a few days’ leave. “He used to call us everyday. We were planning his marriage. See how everything fell apart.”

Talking to the reporters at Ishrar’s home, SDO Maheshwaram said, “The entire nation stands behind the valiant son of the soil. The family will get compensation from the Centre and assistance from the state government.”

Chief minister Raghubar Das on Friday announced a financial assistance of Rs 10 lakh besides a job for one of the family member of the deceased through Twitter.

The Dhanbad mayor officially informed the family members about the assistance besides assuring them a house under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.