India pays tributes to ex-president, Missile Man Abdul Kalam

India paid tribute to its former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, who is well known as the father of India's missile program, at his residence on Tuesday.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the country's main opposition Congress party's chief Sonia Gandhi, her son Rahul Gandhi, were among top politicians who paid their tributes to Kalam.

His body has been kept at his residence in the heart of the Indian capital for people to pay their last respects to the " People's President", also known as "India's Missile Man'.

Kalam's funeral is due Thursday in his home town of Rameswaram in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, where he was born.

Earlier in the day, Kalam's body was received by Indian President Pranab Mukherjee and Modi at Palam Airport in the Indian capital, from where it was brought from the northeastern state of Meghalaya.

Kalam, who was India's 11th president from 2002 to 2007, died of cardiac arrest during a lecture at a management institute in Meghalaya's capital Shillong at the age of 83 late Monday evening.

The Indian government has declared a seven-day national mourning as a mark of respect for the man who was called the " People's President". The parliament will also remain closed till Thursday.

Kalam, who was born in a poor Muslim family and fought all odds to complete his degrees in physics and aerospace engineering, played a key role in the Pokhran-II nuclear tests in 1998. Endi