Envoys and military attaches of different countries on Friday paid floral tributes to Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and his wife Madhulika Rawat, who lost their lives in the IAF chopper crash.
CDS Rawat and his wife were among the 13 people who died in the military helicopter crash in Tamil Nadu's Coonoor on Wednesday.
French and Israel envoys Emmanuel Lenian and Naor Gilon paid tribute to Rawat and his wife. Besides them, British High Commissioner Alex Ellis and Bangladesh High Commissioner to India Mohammad Imran also paid their last respects.
Military attaches of different countries also paid their last respects to India's first CDS.
Speaking to ANI, Konstantin L. Zadorin, Captain first rank at Embassy of the Russian Federation for military, said that General Rawat and his family contributed to make India and Russia's military cooperation like a brotherhood.
"We did a lot to make our partnership really special and privileged. Gen Rawat and his family made a contribution to make our military cooperation like a brotherhood that's why a very sad day for us and it's a great loss for us," he said.
CDS General Rawat will be cremated later in the day today with full military honours.
Apart from General Rawat and his wife, his defence adviser Brig L.S. Lidder and Staff Officer Lieutenant Colonel Harjinder Singh also died in the crash.
Meanwhile, Brig L.S. Lidder was laid to rest earlier today.
Other nine defence forces personnel who died in the chopper crash are Wing Commander Prithvi Singh Chauhan, Squadron Leader Kuldeep Singh, Junior Warrant Officer Rana Pratap Das, Junior Warrant Officer Arakkal Pradeep, Havildar Satpal Rai, Naik Gursewak Singh, Naik Jitendra Kumar, Lance Naik Vivek Kumar and Lance Naik B. Sai Teja.
The bodies of the victims were flown from Sulur near Coimbatore to the Palam airbase on Thursday evening in caskets wrapped in the Tricolour.
Group Captain Varun Singh, the lone survivor in the crash, has been shifted to Air Force Command hospital at Bengaluru for further treatment.
( With inputs from ANI )
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