Gautam Gambhir to pay educational expenses of kids of CRPF men killed in Sukma attack

Former India captain Gautam Gambhir will bear the educational expenses of the children of the 25 CRPF personnel killed in an attack by Naxals in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district, the cricketer announced in his column in Hindustan Times .

The Kolkata Knight Riders captain added that initial steps were being taken in this regard by his charitable foundation.

“On Wednesday morning, I picked up newspapers and saw gut-wrenching pictures of the daughters of two CRPF men killed in the latest attacks. One was saluting her martyred father while in the other picture, the howling young woman was being consoled by her relative,” Gambhir wrote. “The Gautam Gambhir Foundation will take care of the entire education expenses of the children of these martyrs. My team has already started work on this and I shall soon share the progress we have made.”

The ambush, which happened at Burkapal Village on Monday, also left seven other personnel of the 74th battalion injured. The ambush is being reported as the deadliest attack by Naxals in the last seven years.

KKR players wore black armbands for Wednesday’s Indian Premier League clash against Rising Pune Supergiant in honour of the slain CRPF jawans.

While KKR won that match, Gambhir said that the ‘quantum of losing a dear one while serving the country can never be compared to losing a cricket match’.

As we crib over lack of air conditioning or size of our already mammoth SUV, let's ponder over d future of d daughters of CRPF martyrs. pic.twitter.com/XhBbbaFEgD

— Gautam Gambhir (@GautamGambhir) April 26, 2017

25 CRPF men sacrificed lives for d country. Sometimes I wonder if we deserve their sacrifice!!! pic.twitter.com/yKN8bzEom2

— Gautam Gambhir (@GautamGambhir) April 26, 2017

Gambhir has been a vocal supporter of the armed forces in the past, raging on Twitter about incidents of paramilitary jawans being manhandled by Kashmir mobs.

For every slap on my army's Jawan lay down at least a 100 jihadi lives. Whoever wants Azadi LEAVE NOW! Kashmir is ours. #kashmirbelongs2us

— Gautam Gambhir (@GautamGambhir) April 13, 2017

He also took to the social networking site to support a campaign to bring back Kulbhushan Jadhav, a former Indian Navy officer, who has been sentenced to death in Pakistan for alleged espionage.

Stand up for your countrymen, especially when they devote their life for the country's safety! #KulbhusanJadhav pic.twitter.com/HBZPnDQXPp

— Gautam Gambhir (@GautamGambhir) April 12, 2017

Trust our jawans to do the unthinkable & go unnoticed. Have always been proud of our jawans and we should always be! #SaluteOurForces pic.twitter.com/iL0lxqpmfj

— Gautam Gambhir (@GautamGambhir) March 21, 2017