R S PURA: The border town of RS Pura today bid tearful adieu to Major Arvind Bazala, who lost his life along with two other Army officers two days ago when a Cheetah helicopter crashed at Sukna Military Camp in West Bengal.
His mortal remains were consigned to flames at R S Pura, amid full military honours and chanting of slogans in his praise by emotional villagers and his family members.
On Wednesday, three Army officers were killed and a junior commissioned officer was critically injured when a Cheetah helicopter crashed at Sukna Military Camp in West Bengal.
The deceased were identified as pilot Major Sanjeev Lathar, co-pilot Maj Arvind Bazala and Lt Col Rajneesh Kumar.
A pall of gloom descended on the native place of Major Bazala (popularly known as Bravado Zulu on Facebook) when his body arrived late this afternoon.
He is survived by his parents, wife Aahana Bazala and a younger brother. He was an alumnus of Sainik School Nagrota.
Commander of 9 Corps Ashok Amray, GOC Tiger Division S. K Sharma and Commander 162 Brigade P.M Bali besides PHE Minister Sham Lal Choudhary, Minister of State Bhushan Dogra, MLA Gagan Bhagat, MLA Kamal Arora, DC Jammu Simrandeep Singh and ex-MLA Gharu Ram Bhagat besides hundreds of people paid tributes to the officer.
PHE Minister Sham Lal Choudhary in his condolence message said that R S Pura has lost a brave and brilliant officer of the soil.
The 30-year-old had joined National Defence Academy (NDA) in 2005 as cadet and later passed out as Army Lieutenant from Indian Military Academy (IMA) Dehradun in 2009. His first posting was at Chatha in Jammu.