STATE TIMES NEWS
New Delhi: The mortal remains of former Jammu and Kashmir Governor Lt Gen (retd) S K Sinha were consigned to flames here with a large number of mourners including BJP patriarch L K Advani and Army Chief General Dalbir Singh paying their tributes.
The funeral pyre was lit by Y K Sinha, son of the 92-year-old Sinha, as buglers sounded the ‘Last Post’ for the decorated former military officer at the cremation ground in Delhi Cantonment.
Senior BJP leader L K Advani, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Ministers Farooq Abdullah and Ghulam Nabi Azad and some state politicians paid their tributes to Sinha, who died here yesterday after being hospitalised for over a fortnight.
Survived by his wife, son Y K Sinha, an Indian Foreign Service officer, who was Ambassador to Sri Lanka and going to take over a High Commissioner the UK, and three daughters, Sinha had also served as Governor of Assam and Ambassador to Nepal.
After joining army in 1943, Sinha resigned from service in 1983 after the then government superseded him and appointed General A S Vaidya as the new army chief.
He tried his luck in politics by contesting Patna Lok Sabha seat in 1984 but lost.
Sinha, who had led the first batch of Indian troops when Pakistani raiders attacked Kashmir in 1947, was appointed as Secretary to the Indian delegation for a conference convened by the UN to delineate the ceasefire line in Kashmir which came into effect from January 1, 1949.
Speaker, Legislative Assembly, Kavinder Gupta on Friday paid homage to the former Governor, Lt Gen S K Sinha.
The Speaker was present at the Brar Square crematorium in New Delhi where S K Sinha’s last rites were performed.
In his condolence message, Speaker Kavinder Gupta recalled the contribution of SK Sinha as a soldier in 1947 by protecting the state from Pakistani raiders and then as the Governor of the state. He said the contribution of the former Governor would be long remembered in the state as he had a dream to see J&K as a developed and peaceful state and for the same contributed a lot during his tenure as Governor of the state.
The Speaker prayed for peace to the departed soul and conveyed his sympathies with the bereaved family.
The Jammu and Kashmir government has announced a state mourning for three days as a mark of respect to the former Governor.
