Guard of honour for Dr Abdul Kalam, leaders and people pay tribute to 'Missile Man'
New Delhi: The funeral of late former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam will be held in Rameswaram, his birthplace in Tamil Nadu, on July 30 with full military honours.
Home Ministry sources said Dr Kalam would be given a state funeral and the last rites would be held at 11 am on Thursday.
Read: Abdul Kalam had opposed capital punishment
The funeral will be held in Rameswaram in accordance with the wishes of Dr Kalam's family. His 99-year-old elder brother Muthu Mohammed Meeran Marakkair is said to have insisted the last rites be held there.
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The body of Dr Kalam was brought to his Delhi residence, 10 Rajaji Marg on Tuesday. His body was kept inside the bungalow where leaders and people paid their last tributes to him. A group of children too came with roses to say their last byes.
President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice President Hamid Ansari and Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tribute to the late President at his residence. Congress President Sonia Gandhi along with her son Rahul also paid homage to the former President at his residence.
Read: Parliament pays tributes to Abdul Kalam; hails him as 'real gem', 'true son'
Other leaders who were present at his residence were former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his wife, BJP President Amit Shah, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, Union Ministers Jitendra Singh, Ravi Shankar Prasad among others.
The government has declared a seven-day mourning for Dr Kalam. Both Houses of Parliament were adjourned today as mark of respect to the man known and loved across the country as the 'People's President'.
Earlier, President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi recieved Dr Kalam's body at the Delhi airport. The three service chiefs and a host of dignitaries saluted Dr Kalam as the casket carrying him touched down in Delhi, brought via Guwahati from Shillong where he died last night. He died of a massive cardiac arrest while addressing students at the Indian Institute of Management, Shillong. Dr Kalam was 83.
The dignitaries placed wreaths on the body that was wrapped in a tri-colour and placed on a deck on the tarmac at the Palam technical area after it was brought down from a special IAF aircraft that ferried it from Guwahati.
In the morning, the body of Dr Kalam, who collapsed during a lecture and died of cardiac arrest, was taken from Shillong in a Air Force helicopter to Guwahati, where Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi paid his respects.
Read: Former President APJ Abdul Kalam passes away after suddenly collapsing in Shillong
Last photo of APJ Abdul Kalam at IIM Shillong (Photo: DC)
The President and other dignitaries stood in silence as a guard of honour was given before the former President's body was taken in a flower-bedecked gun carriage to his residence at 10 Rajaji Marg, where it will lie in state for people to pay homage from 3 pm onwards.
Read: Abdul Kalam dies: Seven-day state mourning but no holiday
The gun carriage was taken in a procession from the airport to Kalam's residence, a distance of about 12 km.
Former president APJ Abdul Kalam with J & K Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in Uri (Photo: PTI/File)
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, Delhi Lt Governor Najeeb Jung, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, three service chiefs and the Marshal of the Indian Air Force 96-year-old Arjan Singh were among the dignitaries, who paid their last respects to the departed soul.
Read: India’s 'Missile Man' Abdul Kalam dies before he could finish his dream book
Former president APJ Abdul Kalam with former Prime Minister A. B. Vajpayee and Swiss President Pascal Couchepin in New Delhi (Photo: PTI/File)
Read: Kalam led an exemplary life, says Tamilisai Soundararajan
