ITANAGAR, May 5 (IANS): The body of Dorjee Khandu, the Arunachal Pradesh chief minister, was expected to arrive here from Tawang around 12.30 p.m. Thursday, a day after the wreckage of his missing chopper was found.
A Mi-17 helicopter carrying Khandu's body took off from Tawang around 11.10 a.m. Thousands of people have already lined up the helipad here.
Earlier two bodies - Khandu and the lone woman passenger, Yeshi Lamu, the sister of the Tawang legislator Tswang Dhondup - were retrieved and brought to the Tawang civil hospital.
Local villagers and security personnel carried Khandu's body on their shoulders, trekking the tortuous mountain terrain and braving three feet of snow cover.
Three other bodies - of the two pilots and the chief minister's security officer - are still being brought to Tawang. "The three remaining bodies would reach Tawang by afternoon," Kiren Rijiju, the adviser to Khandu, told IANS.
Khandu's funeral takes place Friday in Tawang, his home district.
