Lance Corporal Sultan laid to rest

Lance Corporal Mohamed Sultan has been laid to rest, with full military honors.

Sultan’s burial took place after the military funeral held at the Aasahara Mosque after Maghrib prayers on Monday.

Officers of the Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF) as well as the Director General of National Counter-Terrorism Center, Brigadier Zakariyya Mansoor took part in the funeral.

Friends, family and colleagues of the young officer were tightly packed inside the cemetery, where he was lowered to the ground.

Lance Corporal Sultan, 22, native to Himandhoo island in Alif Alif atoll, collapsed while training in neighboring India, on Saturday afternoon and his body was brought back to the Maldives on Monday afternoon, for burial.

Although it was earlier revealed that an autopsy was to be conducted to determine the cause of the MNDF officer’s death, authorities decided against proceeding with the post mortem as the family did not consent to conducting it.

MNDF flags have been flown half-mast for a period of 48 hours starting 6pm of Sunday, at all MNDF centers.

He was undertaking the 145th Officer Cadet Training Course at the National Defense Academy in Pune, India. The young officer collapsed throughout an endurance run at Camp Greenhorn on Saturday afternoon. It was too late when he was rushed to the hospital at around 1:58pm and was declared dead by then.

Sultan, who joined MNDF on 8 April 2015, served at the Integrated Headquarters (J-01) prior to being promoted to the rank of Lance Corporal while in training. The training programme he joined began on 1 March 2021 and was scheduled to conclude on 15 March 2024.

Pune’s National Defense Academy released a statement following the incident, stating that despite best efforts, Sultan could not be revived.