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YSR's body leaves Hyderabad's Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium |
The flag-draped and flower-bedecked
coffin of former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajsekhara Reddy left the
Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium on Friday afternoon, hours after it was placed there
for the general public and leaders to pay their last respects. The funeral convoy
is headed to Hyderabad's Begumpet Airport from where the coffin carrying the body
of the late chief minister, who died in a helicopter crash on Wednesday, will
be flown to his native village in Kadapa District for final rites with full state
honours. Earlier, the flower-bedecked gun carriage carrying the coffin was brought
to the stadium for a lying in state. Former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda and
senior BJP leader L.K.Advani were among the leaders who paid floral tribute to
the departed leader. There was a sea of humanity inside the stadium, and some
of them were quite distraught and emotional at seeing the cortege carrying the
body of their son of the soil. The body of the late chief minister will be taken
to his village in Kadapa District around 2 p.m. The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan
Singh and Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi paid homage to former Andhra Pradesh
Chief Minister Y.S. Rajsekhar Reddy at his official residence this morning. Reddy,
who died in a helicopter crash along with four others on Wednesday morning, also
received floral tribute from other Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, Defence
Minister A K Antony and Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit at the Chief Minister's
Camp office in Hyderabad's Begumpet area. The leaders also wrote condolence messages
in a book at the camp office. Thereafter, the funeral cortege moved out of the
premises and moved along a designated route towards the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium,
where it will lie in state for about three hours to allow the general public and
politicians to pay their last respects to the departed leader. The Andhra Pradesh
capital was a sea of grieving humanity as people from all walks of life gathered
in tens of thousands on major thoroughfares to give a fitting farewell to their
son of the soil, YSR. The flower bedecked army truck and funeral convoy, led by
his emotionally distressed son Jaganmohan Reddy, wound its way slowly through
the streets of the city towards the stadium. Jagan Reddy greeted the emotionally
charged masses lining the route with folded hands. Reddy's burial will be held
at around 5 p. m. in his native village in Kadapa District. The Andhra Pradesh
Government has declared five days of state mourning in honour of YSR and cancelled
all the official programs in the state. Reddy's Bell 430 chopper went missing
on Wednesday morning at about 9.35 and could only be located almost 24 hours later
on Thursday morning following a night long search operation by different units
of security personnel including Army's Commandos, Air Force's Sukhoi-30, and 5,000
CRPF personnel. The wreckage was discovered atop a hill about 40 nautical miles
from Kurnoool town. Along with YSR, four others-- Dr P Subramanium, the Special
Secretary to the Chief Minister; ASC Wesley, Chief Security Officer and two pilots
Group Captain SK Bhatia and Captain MS Reddy-died in the crash.
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