New Delhi: The family members of Brigadier Lakhwinder Singh Lidder, who passed away in the Indian Air Force (IAF) chopper crash earlier on Wednesday, bid goodbye to him this morning averring it as a “national loss”.
“We must give him a good farewell, a smiling send-off, I am a soldier’s wife,” said Brigadier Lidder’s wife Geetika Lidder. “This is not the way we wanted him back but if it was not to be then… He was a very good father…my child will really miss him. So, it’s a big loss,” she added.
Brigadier Lidder’s daughter Aashna looked extremely emotional as she remembered her “hero” and “best friend”.
“I am going to be 17. So, he was with me for 17 years. We will go ahead with happy memories. It's a national loss. My father was a hero, my best friend. Maybe it was destined and better things will come our way. He was my biggest motivator,” she said.
Brigadier Lidder’s last rites were performed with full military honours at the Brar Square Crematorium in Delhi Cantonment.
Brigadier Lidder, a second-generation Army officer, had worked meticulously on tri-service reform as the Defence Assistant to Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, who also lost his life in the ill-fated chopper crash.
Besides, he also was instrumental in chalking out a plan for the country’s defence reforms with focus on ensuring enhanced coordination among the three forces.
Brigadier Lidder, commissioned into 2 Jammu Kashmir Rifles earlier in December 1990, was soon set to be promoted as the Major General.
11 others, including General Rawat’s wife Madhulika Rawat, on board the IAF chopper were also killed in the crash near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu.