Tears, salutes & brave smiles as families bid final farewell

CDS & Wife, Brig Lidder Cremated With Honours | Must give him a smiling send-off: Lidder’s wife

As dusk set in, the silence broken by the chanting of mantras and a sombre 17-gun salute, the bodies of chief of defence staff General Bipin Rawat and his wife Madhulika were consigned to the flames by their two daughters at the Brar Square cremation ground on Friday.

Gen Rawat’s daughters Kritika and Tarini lit the pyre on which their parents were laid side by side. The last rites of Gen Rawat’s defence adviser Brigadier LS Lidder, who was also among the 13 killed in the Mi-17V5 crash near Coonoor on Wednesday, were also conducted at the same cremation ground earlier in the day.

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Gen Bipin Rawat’s daughters Kritika & Tarini performed the last rites of their parents, who were laid side by side on a common pyre, at Delhi Cantonment on Friday

My father was a hero, my best friend. Maybe it was destined and better things will come our way. He was my biggest motivator —Aashna Lidder