THE daughter of Brigadier Lakhwinder Singh Lidder, Defence Advisor to the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat, bid a tearful goodbye to him on Friday.

Brigadier Lidder was one of the 13 people who died in the military helicopter crash in Tamil Nadu’s Coonoor on Wednesday. The tragic chopper crash also claimed the life of CDS General Rawat and his wife. Brigadier Lidder’s daughter Aashna remembered her father as a hero, a great motivator and her best friend.

“I am going to be 17. So, he was with me for 17 years, we will go ahead with happy memories. It is 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,” Aashna told ANI.

She said her father was a happy-go-lucky person and was her best friend. “He used to infuse passion not just in me but in every person. He was a great motivator,” she noted.

“I feel scared as I was really pampered by my father,” she added.

Geetika Lidder, the wife of Brigadier Lidder, said that he should be given a smiling send-off. “We must give him a good farewell, a smiling send-off, I am a soldier’s wife. It’s a big loss,” she added.

Geetika Lidder, wife of Brigadier Lidder, told reporters after the cremation that she is feeling more pain than any pride.

“Life is too long to spend but if this is the wish of God, we will live with it. This is not the way we wanted him back,” she stated.

During the last rites, Geetika Lidder was seen in tears kneeling by the head of her husband’s coffin, which was draped with the national flag and decked with flowers.

Brigadier’s daughter was by her mother’s side, fighting back tears of her own while paying last respects to her father.

The Army said the mortal remains of only three persons -- General Rawat, his wife Madhulika Rawat and Brigadier Lidder -- had been positively identified so far.

Other 10 defence forces personnel who died in the chopper crash are Staff Officer Lieutenant Colonel Harjinder Singh, Wing Commander Prithvi Singh Chauhan, Squadron Leader Kuldeep Singh, Junior Warrant Officer Rana Pratap Das, Junior Warrant Officer Arakkal Pradeep, Havildar Satpal Rai, Naik Gursewak Singh, Naik Jitendra Kumar, Lance Naik Vivek Kumar and Lance Naik B Sai Teja.

The bodies of the victims were flown from Sulur near Coimbatore to the Palam airbase Thursday evening in caskets wrapped in the Tricolour.