The Hindu : State bids tearful adieu to Bakht

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 25, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

State bids tearful adieu to Bakht

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, FEB. 24. Kerala today bid a solemn farewell to the Governor, Sikander Bakht, who died here last night.

Despite a general strike that kept most people indoors, a fairly large crowd gathered at the State Secretariat where Mr. Bakht's body was kept for public viewing this morning, to pay their last respects to the elder statesman. The 86-year-old Mr. Bakht was admitted to the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital here last week after he complained of abdominal pain and was operated upon. He developed infection and cardiac complications and was put on ventilator on Sunday. Mr. Bakht breathed his last around 9. 30 p.m. on Monday.

Before being taken to New Delhi by a special IAF aircraft for burial, Mr. Bakht's body was kept for a brief while at the Raj Bhavan and for about an hour at the Durbar Hall of the Secretariat. The body was received by personnel from the local unit of the army at the Raj Bhavan lawns and taken to the auditorium where a wreath was laid on the body on behalf of the President of India. Mr. Bakht's wife, children and grandchildren spent a brief while near the body. The body was taken from the Raj Bhavan to the Secretariat on a decorated army vehicle. The Chief Minister, A.K. Antony, and the Chief Secretary received the body at the entrance to the Durbar Hall of the Secretariat, where it was kept for the public to pay their last respects. Almost the entire Cabinet, MPs, MLAs, political party leaders and senior officials placed wreaths on the body. Wreaths were also placed on the body on behalf of the three services.

The coffin bearing Mr. Bakht's body, draped in the tricolour, was transferred to the cortege and taken to the airport for its last journey out of Kerala around 11 a.m. A large number of people, including Cabinet Ministers and political leaders, were present at the airport. The Chief Minister, the Chief Secretary, the DGP and the Principal Secretary (General Administration), K. K. Vijayakumar, accompanied the body to Delhi.

The State Government had declared a holiday today for all its offices and lowered the national flag to half-mast as a mark of respect to Mr. Bakht. It has declared a seven-day mourning and cancelled all official functions during the period.

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