Major Dhoundiyal cremated

Dehradun: Thousands of people turned up on the banks of river Ganga in Haridwar Tuesday to bid a tearful farewell to Major Vibhuti Shankar Dhoundiyal, who died fighting terrorists in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir.

The mortal remains of Major Dhoundiyal were consigned to flames with full state honours at Kharkhari cremation ground. The funeral pyre was lit by the young officer's uncle Jagdish Dhoundiyal in presence of his father-in-law M K Kaul, whose daughter he had married less than a year ago.

State Urban Development Minister Madan Kaushik, Mussoorie MLA Ganesh Joshi, Pradesh Congress in-charge Anugrah Nararan Singh and Congress MLA from Dharchula, Harish Dhami, were prominent among those who attended the last rites of the martyr.

Before the last rites of the slain Major were performed in Haridwar, a huge crowd gathered at his residence on Nashville road in Dehradun in the morning to pay homage.