The small war memorial near the burial site of India’s 1971 war hero Albert Ekka has become a place for people, especially those visiting from Jharkhand, to pay tribute to soldiers.
On Monday, Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Sudarshan Bhagat visited the site. On an official tour to Tripura, Mr. Bhagat, who is an MP from Lohardaga in Jharkhand, paid floral tribute and observed a minute of silence.
Ekka, who hailed from Jharkhand, was posted with the 14th Battalion of the Brigade of the Guards in Tripura when he was martyred during the Battle of Gangasagar. The regiment, in fact, had many soldiers from Jharkhand while it was stationed in Tripura.
Memorial restored
Around six feet high, the memorial at Sripalli, south of Agartala, was restored after Ekka’s wife Balamdeena, her son and other family members paid a visit on January 11 last year. The family, which had refused to accept the urn of the Param Vir Chakra recipient from the Jharkhand government, had asked to visit the burial site instead.
