Assam: Tearful Adieu to Soulful Cultural Icon Zubeen Garg

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: The adage goes that ‘death is the best leveller’. However, it’s one’s deed that makes all the difference. This is what the people of Assam saw today while bidding a tearful adieu to their soulful cultural icon, Zubeen Garg. Crores of people in the state and the nation shed tears for him today.

Amid 21 gun salutes of the Assam police marking full state honours and the wailing of lakhs of people of the state, the mortal remains of the cultural icon were consigned to flames at Kamarkuchi near Sonapur today. The singer’s sister, Palme Barthakur, accompanied by Rahul Gautam Sarma, Arun Garg, Rituprayag Garg and others, lit the funeral pyre in the presence of Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma and Union ministers Kiren Rijiju, Sarbananda Sonowal and Pabitra Margherita.

The Assam Police served as the pallbearers while carrying the coffin from the national highway to the cremation site at Kamarkuchi.

With emotions all pervading, the gathering kept sobbing and wailing when a crestfallen Garima Saikia Garg paid her tearful last respects to Zubeen Garg. The ambience at Kamarkuchi was laden with emotions, with everyone in the gathering sobbing and wailing. Even the policemen on duty were also doing their duty with scalding tears and their voices choked with emotion.

Earlier in the day, the administration took the mortal remains of the icon to the GMCH and conducted the post-mortem afresh in the presence of AIIMS doctors and CID officials. Taking the body back to Sarusajai, the funeral procession to Kamarkuchi started from Sarusajai. Floral tributes kept showering on him in the entire stretch from Sarusajai to Kamarkuchi, where the Chief Minister and others paid their last respects. Thousands of fans walked behind the cortege, raising slogans and singing Zubeen’s songs one last time before the pyre was lit. The singer’s father also went to the cremation site but fell ill all of a sudden. The administration took him back to Guwahati in an ambulance for treatment.

 Also Read: Ravish Kumar on Zubeen Garg's Unprecedented Farewell

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