Ranchi, Apr 24 (PTI) Intelligence Bureau (IB) officer Manish Ranjan, who was killed in the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, had planned to take his parents to the Vaishno Devi shrine after returning from this vacation, one of his friends recounted.

Sanjeev Kumar Gupta, who was at the Ranchi airport on Thursday morning to receive Ranjan’s mortal remains, said he was a meritorious student.

“His father recently retired as the headmaster of the Hindi High School in Jhalda. Ranjan had planned to take his parents to Vaishno Devi after this vacation,” he said.

Ranjan, a section officer with the IB posted in Hyderabad, was among the 26 people killed in the terror attack on Tuesday.

“We had never thought such a gruesome incident would take place. People say terrorists have no religion, but innocent people were brutally killed because of their religion,” said another friend, Aditya Sharma, who also came to the Ranchi airport to take his mortal remains to his native place in Jhalda in West Bengal’s Purulia district.

Jharkhand BJP president Babulal Marandi was among the leaders and administrative officers who paid homage to Ranjan at the airport.

Marandi said the way innocent people were killed on the basis of their religion is not pardonable.

“The perpetrators of the crime will be brought to justice by the government. The masterminds of the attack will also not be spared,” he said. PTI SAN SOM