Proposals raised by Laqin Bayaka, a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC) who died a heroic death when he saved a drowning boy January this year, were brought to Beijing for the annual session of the top legislative body as a tribute to the departed lawmaker.

Laqin, a herdsman of the Tajik ethnic group and also a border patrolman in Xinjiang, lost his life while saving a boy who had fallen through the ice on a frozen lake while taking part in a training course at a college in Xinjiang's Kashgar.

Musajan Nurdun, Cui Jiuxiu, Memet Jume, and Dolatman Kamik, deputies to the National People's Congress (NPC) from northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, pose for a picture in front of the Great Hall of the People with a photo of Laqin Bayaka, before attending the fourth session of 13th NPC, March 5. (Photo/www.ts.cn)

"He was more than a border patrolman. He was a hero on the Pamir Plateau," Musajan Nurdun, Party chief of a village in Yining of Xinjiang, reminisced.

As an NPC deputy, Laqin visited many pastoral areas over previous years and handed in proposals on how to build stronger border patrol teams and improve elderly care and healthcare services for them, Musajan said.

He said he would do a better job at this year's NPC session, and was planning to make proposals on improving healthcare services for border patrolmen just before he gave his life, Musajan told People's Daily Online.

"Laqin is no longer here at the NPC session. But we believe he will continue to roam as an eagle on the Pamir Plateau," Musajan said.

Cui Jiuxiu, an NPC deputy and deputy Party chief of Tuokezhake town in Shufu county of Kashgar, said this year she and her fellow deputies would accomplish the unfulfilled wishes of Laqin, a patriot and a loyal member of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

Laqin always kept the overall interests of the country in mind and acted as an outstanding Party member in both border patrols and in performing his duties as an NPC deputy and a Party member, remarked Parhat Rozi, an NPC deputy and deputy secretary of the CPC Kashgar Prefectural Committee in Xinjiang.

"Laqin is my role model," said Dolatman Kamik, a newly-elected NPC deputy and also a border patrol officer from Taxkorgan county in Kashgar.

Laqin was posthumously awarded the title "role model of the times," for his patriotism, devotion, and bravery.