Abhijit Nath, NET Correspondent, Tripura
Expressing displeasure over the demolition of a memorial erected in Agartala in memory of the martyrs of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, a Bangladeshi citizen forum has requested the restoration of the monument to its past glory.
“The 40-foot-tall Martyr’s Memorial at Post Office Chowmuhani at the heart of Agartala city, the capital of Tripura, is one of the most important monuments to the common liberation aspirations and friendship of the people of India and Bangladesh,” they said in a statement.
Reportedly, the monument was recently demolished. The forum requested the Indian authorities to “restore the monument to its rightful place in its proper place and to preserve the symbolic monuments of the relationship between the people of the two countries”.
India specially the people of states sharing its border with Bangladesh played an important role in the Bangladesh Liberation War.
The joint statement was signed by Bangladeshi writer and language activist Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury, fiction writer Hasan Azizul Haque, professor and essayist Anupam Sen, playwright Ramendu Majumder, freedom fighter, trustee, Liberation War Museum Dr. Sarwar Ali, Freedom Fighter and Actor Syed Hasan Imam, Journalist Abed Khan, Freedom Fighter and Actress Laila Hasan, Fiction Writer Selina Hossain, Professor Abdus Selim, Freedom Fighter Shahidullah Khan Badal, Bir Pratik Habibul Alam and Writer, Journalist, President, Ekattarer Ghatak Dalal Shah, among others.
Professor Manik Deb, chairman of the Bangladesh Liberation Committee of the Pradesh Congress, has demanded that the memorial be re-erected at Post Office Chowmuhani.
He said the martyr’s pillar was erected in memory of the Indian Army personnel including the freedom fighters killed in the Bangladesh Liberation War and this place later became the history of a state.
According to him, the memory of this martyr should have been removed by holding a dignified ceremony and showing due respect. Instead, the present government has demolished this martyr’s memory with utmost disrespect.
Previously, a tank and artillery were removed from Post Office Chowmuhani to Albert Ekka Park in Lichubagan at the northern part of Agartala city on November 15, 2020, where the 1971 Indo-Pak war memorial is being constructed.
