A pall of gloom descended on the village on Friday as the mortal remains of Havildar Rafi Mohammad, EME corps, were laid to rest with full military honours.

Army personnel, NCC commanding officer G.M Rao, revenue divisional officer, Tenali, Mandal Revenue Officer and MLC Annam Satish Prabhakar, Bapatla, visited the house and offered their condolences.

Rafi, who got married five years ago, was supposed to come to his native village in the first week of June for a month to stay during Ramzan.

But, he died in a landslip that hit Kargil-Leh sector on May 15; he was in a recovery vehicle that got caught in the landslide and plunged into a gorge tumbling into a depth of 3,000 feet.

Rafi’s body was found the same evening while the body of another soldier is yet to be traced.

The youngest of five brothers, Rafi had a passion to serve in the Army following in the footsteps of his elder brother Md. Arif. Soon after completing his Intermediate, Rafi was selected as a sepoy and within five years, rose up in the ranks to become Havildar. Rafi used to help educate children from economically backward families.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Andhra Pradesh / by P. Samuel Jonathan / Chandole – May 19th, 2018