MUZAFFARABAD: Lt-Col Asif Ali Awan, who was among six Pakistani army officer and soldiers martyred in a helicopter crash in Congo Friday last, was laid to rest on Sunday with full military honours.

His funeral prayers were offered in K.H. Khurshid mini stadium by thousands of people from all walks of life, including AJK Minister for Local Government and Rural Development Khawaja Farooq Ahmed, leader of the opposition in AJK assembly Chaudhry Latif Akbar, PPP lawmakers Raja Faisal Rathore and Syed Bazil Ali Naqvi, and high ranking civil and military officers.

Paying glowing tributes to Mr Awan and his colleagues on the occasion, Mr Ahmed and other speakers said their sacrifice was yet another manifestation of Pakistan Army’s professionalism and commitment to peacekeeping.

“Kashmiris and Pakistanis are inseparable from each other and Asif Ali Awan Shaheed is yet another strong example of it,” Mr Ahmed said.

Earlier, moving scenes were witnessed when soldiers took out Mr Awan’s coffin, which was draped in Pakistani and UN flags, from an ambulance at a main artery in Plate neighbourhood and carried it to his nearby residence on their shoulders through a red carpeted street decorated with floral gates and paper flags of Pakistan and AJK.

Apart from hundreds of men and women waiting in the street as well as in the martyred officer’s residence, a large number of residents were also sitting or standing on the rooftops of the adjacent houses from where they showered rose petals on the coffin.

After the burial, army and police personnel separately presented a salute at the grave,followed by laying of floral wreaths on behalf of the army chief and other civil and military officers.

Mr Awan, who turned 40 in February this year, is survived by his wife and three daughters, aged between 12 and 5 years.

Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2022