Pathanamthitta (Kerala), Oct 4 (PTI) Thomas Cherian, an army jawan, who died in a plane crash in 1968, was laid to rest with full military honours in a specially prepared burial chamber in a church courtyard in this district on Friday afternoon.
Earlier in the day, the mortal remains, escorted by military personnel, arrived at his family residence in Elanthoor village in this district.
After the priests performed the religious rites and the police gave a gun salute, the body was taken to St Peter’s Orthodox Church, Karur.
Hundreds of people, mainly from the Elanthoor locality and from far and wide, gathered to pay their last respects to the soldier’s mortal remains 56 years after his death.
Kerala Health Minister Veena George, Pathanamthitta MP Anto Antony, leaders of various political parties, and senior officials of the military and civil administration paid homage to the soldier.
The military accorded full honours before the body was taken on its final journey.
The remains of Cherian, a resident of Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district, were recovered 56 years after an ill-fated aircraft of the Indian Air Force crashed over the Rohtang Pass in Himachal Pradesh. His remains were among the four recovered through a search mission, the Army had said.
On Thursday, the mortal remains of the soldier were received at Air Force Station Shangumugham in Thiruvananthapuram with full military honours and were kept at the Pangode Military Station. The coffin was taken to his village on Friday morning.
Pangode Military Station Commander, the Station Commander of Air Force Station, Shangumugham, the deceased soldier’s next of kin, and Central and state dignitaries laid wreaths.
The twin-engine turboprop transport aircraft AN-12, carrying 102 people, had gone missing on February 7, 1968, while flying from Chandigarh to Leh.
For decades, the wreckage and remains of the victims remained lost in the icy terrain. PTI TGB TGB KH
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