12-year-old daughter shows military ethos, performs Lt Col Singh's last rites

NEW DELHI: After the daughters of Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and his military adviser Brigadier LS Lidder on Friday, it was the turn of 12-year-old Preet Kaur to perform the solemn last rites of her father Lt-Colonel Harjinder Singh at the Brar Square crematorium on Sunday.
The cremation of Lt-Col Singh (43), the staff officer of Gen Rawat who was also among the 13 killed in the Mi-17 V5 helicopter crash near Coonoor on December 8, was attended by defence minister Rajnath Singh and the three Service chiefs, among others.
The minister paid his condolences to Lt-Col Singh's wife Major Agnes P Menezes (retd) and Preet, who also showed quiet dignity and the characteristic military ethos of bearing loss with fortitude, much like Gen Rawat's daughters Kritika and Tarini and Brig Lidder's daughter Aashna had done before her. The bodies of Lt-Col Singh and eight other military personnel killed in the crash were positively identified only on Saturday after DNA testing.