Govt declares state mourning on Monday over Oman Sultan’s demise

The
government has declared one-day state mourning on Monday in view of the demise
of Oman’s Sultan Qaboos bin, the home ministry announced on Sunday.

A home ministry spokesperson tweeted:

Oman Sultan
Qaboos bin Said Al Said passed away on January 10 at the age of 79.

Officials
Sultan’s death late Friday on its official Twitter account. He was believed to
have been in poor health and travelled to Belgium for what the court described
as a medical checkup last month. The royal court declared three days of
mourning.

Sultan
Qaboos bin Said was the Mideast’s longest-ruling monarch who seized power in a
1970 palace coup and pulled his Arabian sultanate into modernity while
carefully balancing diplomatic ties between adversaries Iran and the US, has
died.

After Said’s demise, Prime Minister Narendra Modi mourned his death saying that Sultan Qaboos bin Said was a “beacon of peace for our region and the world”. He twitted