- Title: India's top general laid to rest with full military honours
- Date: 10th December 2021
- Summary: NEW DELHI, INDIA (DECEMBER 10, 2021) (ANI - NO USE INDIA) DAUGHTERS OF INDIA'S CHIEF OF DEFENCE STAFF BIPIN RAWAT AND HIS WIFE MADHULIKA RAWAT, WHO DIED IN HELICOPTER CRASH IN SOUTHERN TAMIL NADU STATE, KRITIKA AND TARINI PERFORMING FUNERAL RITES AT THEIR RESIDENCE PEOPLE, INCLUDING ARMY OFFICIALS AT RAWAT'S RESIDENCE FAMILY PERFORMING FUNERAL RITUALS VARIOUS OF OFFICIALS CARRYING RAWAT'S AND HIS WIFE'S COFFINS/OFFICIALS SALUTING VARIOUS OF VEHICLES CARRYING COFFINS LEAVING RAWAT'S RESIDENCE / DRIVING THROUGH CROWDS VARIOUS OF PEOPLE FOLLOWING FUNERAL CONVOY ROAD SIGN READING (English and Hindi) 'WAR CEMETERY'
- Embargoed: 24th December 2021 15:54
- Keywords: India helicopter crash military honours top general Bipin Rawat
- Location: NEW DELHI, INDIA
- City: NEW DELHI, INDIA
- Country: India
- Topics: Asia / Pacific,Air Accidents,Disaster/Accidents
- Reuters ID: LVA001F7GGMYV
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: India's top general, Bipin Rawat, was cremated in New Delhi on Friday (December 10) with full military honours, including a 17-gun salute, two days after he and 12 others died in a helicopter crash in southern India.
Rawat, India's first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), who led one of the world's largest armed forces, and his entourage had been flying to a hillside military college on Wednesday (December 8) when their helicopter came down in heavy fog.
Only one person survived the accident. The Indian Air Force has commissioned an inquiry into the incident.
Hundreds of soldiers escorted the carriage bearing the 63-year-old general's body on its final journey through India's capital. A dozen senior military officers had earlier kept a vigil while his body lay in state at his home.
Onlookers showered flowers on his coffin during the procession, and dozens holding the Indian flag ran alongside the carriage, some shouting "Hail mother India."
The bodies of Rawat, his wife and 11 defense personnel who also died in the crash were brought to New Delhi late on Thursday (December 9), where Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others laid wreaths before the flag-draped coffins.
Modi had handpicked Rawat, a decorated general, as CDS in late 2019 with a mission to reorganize India's army, air force and navy into a single, modern force with U.S.-style joint theater commands.
Rawat's death comes at a critical time for India, which is embroiled in a months-long standoff with China along parts of their shared border.
Tensions also remain high on India's heavily-militarized frontier with arch-rival Pakistan, which New Delhi accuses of stoking an armed insurgency in disputed Kashmir.
(Production: Chiara Rodriquez) - Copyright Holder: ANI (India)
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