'Saddened and shocked': Sania Mirza condoles death of Indian defence chief Gen Bipin Rawat

Indian tennis star Sania Mirza, who is also the wife of Pakistani all-rounder Shoaib Malik, offered her condolences on the death of Indian chief of army staff Bipin Rawat.

The celebrity took to her Instagram handle's story and said that she was deeply grieved by the demise of Bipin, his wife and all the others who were onboard the unfortunate plane.

"Saddened and shocked by the untimely death of CDS Bipin Rawat ji and his wife Smt. Madhulika Rawat ji and all the deceased co passengers," Sania wrote.

Sania offered her condolences to the families and friends of the deceased.

Gen Bipin Rawat dies in helicopter crash

Thirteen out of 14 people, including Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, were killed when an Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopter crashed in Tamil Nadu's Coonoor Wednesday.

Read more: India's defence chief Gen Bipin Rawat, 12 others die in Tamil Nadu helicopter crash

"With deep regret, it has now been ascertained that Gen Bipin Rawat, Mrs Madhulika Rawat and 11 other persons on board have died in the unfortunate accident," the Indian Air Force (IAF) announced on Twitter. 

Rawat was India's first chief of defence staff, a position that the government established in 2019, and was seen as close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The crash

The 63-year-old was travelling with his wife and other senior officers in the Russian-made Mi-17 chopper, which crashed near its destination in southern Tamil Nadu state.

Footage from the scene showed a crowd of people trying to extinguish the fiery wreck with water buckets while a group of soldiers carried one of the passengers away on an improvised stretcher.

Rawat was headed to the Defence Services Staff College (DSSC) to address students and faculty from the nearby Sulur air force base in Coimbatore.

The chopper was already making its descent at the time of the crash.

It came down around 10 kilometres (six miles) from the nearest main road, forcing emergency workers to trek to the accident site, a fire official told AFP.

Career officer

Rawat came from a military family with several generations having served in the Indian armed forces.

The general joined the army as a second lieutenant in 1978 and had four decades of service behind him, having commanded forces in Indian Occupied Kashmir and along the Line of Actual Control bordering China.

He was credited with reducing insurgency on India's northeastern frontier and supervised a cross-border counter-insurgency operation into neighbouring Myanmar.

Rawat was chief of the 1.3 million-strong army from 2017 to 2019 before his elevation to defence services chief, which analysts said was to improve integration between the army, navy and air force.

He was considered close to the Modi government and turned heads last month when he reportedly made an approving reference to "lynching terrorists" in the contested territory of Kashmir.

The Mi-17 helicopter, which first entered service in the 1970s and is in wide use by defence services around the world, has been involved in a number of accidents over the years.

Fourteen people died in a crash last month when an Azerbaijani military Mi-17 chopper went down during a training flight.

In 2019, four Indonesian soldiers were killed and five others wounded in central Java in another training accident involving the aircraft.

India's air force said an inquiry was underway into Wednesday's accident.

Indian news agency ANI had earlier tweeted about the crash, saying that 14 people in total were on board the chopper, including the Indian defence assistant, IAF pilots, and security commandos.