IAF engineer cremated with full state honours

Varanasi: The mortal remains of

IAF

flight engineer Vishal Kumar Pandey, who died in Mi-17 chopper crash in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday, were consigned to flames amid full state honour late on Thursday night at Harishchandra Ghat.

The entire locality echoed with ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’ slogan, when his body was brought to his home in Hukulganj locality of the city around 10.15pm. It was extremely hard to console the grieving family members, who had been waiting since they got the information of his demise on Wednesday evening.

After some time the body was placed at the Cultural Complex, Chowkaghat, rich tributes were paid to the departed soul. Besides the administrative and police officials, political leaders of different parties were there to pay homage.

The funeral procession reached Harishchandra Ghat around midnight and the body was cremated after that with full state honours. People assembled at the ghat in large number to attend the funeral.

He was among the six IAF personnel who lost their lives in the crash at Budgam district of Kashmir on Wednesday morning.