Bangladesh honours 12 Indian soldiers martyred in war

Kolkata: Bangaldesh honoured 12 posthumous martyrs of the Indian armed forces’ on Sunday, who died in the Liberation War. The honour came on the the Vijay Diwas celebrations at the Eastern Command Headquarters, at Fort William.

As already planned, Bangladesh is planning to kickstart the work to build a war memorial with names of all the Indian soldiers that martyred on its soil, next year.

The twelve martyred soldiers include seven from Indian army, two from the air force, one from the navy and two from the BSF.  

Family members of the 12 martyrs received “Mukti Juddho Sammanona” plaques as the mark of honour from Bangladesh Liberation War Affairs minister A. K. M. Mozammel Haque after the wreath laying ceremony at Vijay Smarak and the fly-past by four Hawk aircrafts of the IAF and three choppers of the Army Aviation Corps showering rose petals.

In his address, Mr Haque spoke about the proposed war memorial in Bangladesh. He later said, “We will to build the war memorial at Brahmanbaria because a large number of soldiers sacrificed their lives there during the Liberation War. A land of 10 acres has been acquired. We are going to construct it very soon.” Mr Haque elaborated, “On the occasion of our Independence Day on March 26 we will lay the foundation stone. Around 1,700 Indian martyrs’ names will be inscribed there. Once the construction is complete, the Indian government, armed forces officers, a good number of delegation will be invited to attend the inauguration to be made by our Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed. There is also a plan to invite the Indian PM to the event.”

General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (Eastern Command) Lieutenant General M. M. Naravane said, “We were forced into this conflict because of a humanitarian crisis of gigantic proportion, resulting in the annihilation of Pakistan Army and the birth of Bangladesh. But it has happened very rarely that a third country is born when two countries fight.”