As many as 27 mortar shells believed to date back to the 1971 India-Pakistan war were found on Thursday during excavation of a fishpond in a village in Tripura West district on the border with Bangladesh.
Bamtia Garrison Officer-in-Charge Anthony Jamatia told reporters that the shells were discovered after Dulal Nama, a resident of Rangutia village in Bamtia under Mohanpur division, tried to dig a fish pond on his land.
The shells were fused together and initial estimates suggested the body may have been buried for around 53 years, but authorities were unable to find any information about the country of origin or manufacturer of the shells found on the body.
Police and Tripura Members of the Transnational Rifles (TSR) from Forward Post Bamtia rushed to the spot and supervised the excavation work.
Elderly residents of the village claim that fighters from the Mukti Bahini, a Bangladeshi guerilla fighting force, used to frequent the Bamtia area to train during the India-Pakistan war of 1971. They said that Mukti Bahini fighters may have buried mortar shells in the area but there was no need to retrieve them after the war ended.
Tripura has enjoyed friendly relations with Bangladesh since its creation in 1971. The small northeastern state played a key role in Bangladesh’s nine-month Liberation War against Pakistani forces, which ended with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s Mukti Bahini declaring independence on March 26, 1971. Pakistani forces surrendered to the combined Bangladeshi and Indian forces on December 16, 1971.
Tripura at the time sheltered 1.6 million East Pakistani refugees, outnumbering its population of 1.5 million. The state now shares 856 km of international border with Bangladesh, including land and river borders.
© Indian Express Ltd.
First uploaded: July 19, 2024, 10:08 AM
