Parkash Singh Badal cremated with full state honours

MUKTSAR (BADAL): Akali stalwart and five-time Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal was cremated with full state honours in his own fields in his native village of Badal, in Muktsar district, on Thursday afternoon.
Thousands from all walks of life came to say goodbye to the grand old man of Punjab politics. After hugging his father one last time, the Shiromani Akali Dal patriarch’s son and party president, Sukhbir Singh Badal, wept as he lit the funeral pyre in the family orchard. Kinnow trees planted by Badal Senior over two acres had to be uprooted for lack of such a big cremation ground in the village.

Born on December 8, 1927 in Abul Khurana village near Malout, southwest Punjab, the Akali stalwart died at the age of 95 at a private hospital in Mohali on April 25, nine days after he was admitted to the ICU with acute exacerbation of bronchial asthma. In the morning Badal’s body, wrapped in the SAD flag, was kept in a glass casket at his residence for the public to pay their last respects from 9 am to 1 pm.