Funeral prayer of AJK President Barrister Sultan Mahmood offered
MIRPUR (Kashmir English): The funeral prayer of the President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Barrister Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry, was offered at Quaid-e-Azam Stadium Mirpur on Sunday.
His body was placed on a “gun carriage”. Later, he was laid to rest with full state and military honours. When a person’s coffin is placed on a “gun carriage”, it is not just a funeral; it is a silent declaration by the state that this person was not ordinary.
Thousands of individuals from all walks of life, including the Prime Minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Raja Faisal Mumtaz Rathore, former prime ministers, ministers, political leadership, military officers, and high bureaucracy, attended the funeral prayer.
Barrister Sultan Mahmood was laid to rest with tearful eyes. The body of the President of the State was saluted by the Pakistan Army and the Azad Kashmir Police contingents.
Tributes of Barrister Sultan Mahmood
The “gun carriage” departing from Muzaffarabad is a symbol that this departure is not personal, but national. In Pakistan’s 78-year history, the Quaid of Kashmir is the fifth personality whose last rites were performed in a “gun carriage”, and after Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, he is the second political figure to receive this honour.
Previously, this honour was bestowed upon Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, General Zia-ul-Haq, Abdul Sattar Edhi, and Dr. Ruth Pfau.
A gun carriage funeral is not merely a military tradition but an acknowledgment by the state of an individual’s extraordinary national services.
The military vehicle with the cannon, the national salute, the military contingent, and full protocol, in fact, bear witness to services that cannot be encapsulated in words.
