Thousands of people had gathered at Elanthur St Peters Church to bid farewell to Thomas Cherian, a craftsman in Indian Army’s elite Corps of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers who had laid down his life at the altar of the nation in an air crash on February 7, 1968 in Rohtang Pass in Himachal Pradesh.
High ranking bishops and priests of the Orthodox Church led the prayers and other rituals prior to the funeral as his brothers and sister stood with sombre faces. Cherian was buried with full military honors as onlookers shouted “Thomas Cherian Amar Rahen”.
His mortal remains were recovered from the crash site last week after a 56 year long search operation carried out by the rescue team of Indian Army. The body was flown to Thiruvananthapuram by a special IAF aircraft and was received by the officers and jawans of the Pangode Brigade of the Army, stationed in the suburb of the capital city,
Thomas Cherian began his last journey to his village early Friday morning after the officers and jawans accorded him the customary send off at the Brigade head quarters. A motorcade accompanied the special vehicle that carried the coffin which was draped in the national tricolors. The body was kept in his ancestral home for two hours before the cortege accompanied by hundreds of people left for the church.
Thousands had gathered to bid him good bye and for most of them Thomas Cherian was an unknown soldier till Monday. It was through the communication from Indian Army that they came to know about Cherian who had left the village at the age of 17 to serve the nation.
A team of officers and soldiers acted as pall bearers while the group of bishops and priests read out psalms and prayers from Holy Bible. There was a message from Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi which was read out by the church representative. Wreaths were placed on behalf of the Kerala Government as well as the district administration.
Close relations of Cherian including his two brothers Thomas Varghese, Thomas Thomas and sister Mary kissed the coffin for the last time while the officers handed over the tricolour to Thomas Thomas. The casket was lowered into a special tomb near to the final resting place of their parents and elder brother.
“This is an emotional farewell to Cherian who had come back from the snow clad Himalayas to the arid soil of this village. All we could offer right now is our tearful goodbye,” said Gopalakrishnan, who was in attendance at the Thomas’s Odalil Home from morning till the last post was sounded by the Army buglers. Cherian’s name would figure in the record books for the feat of Dogra Scouts of the Indian Army and Tiranga Mountain Rescue for recovering a soldier after 56 years of search mission. Till date only nine bodies out of the 102 passengers who were on board in the ill-fated aircraft had been retrieved.
