AGARTALA, December 21 (TIWN): The state government is expecting to complete construction of the Indo-Bangla Maitri Park at Chottakhola in Belonia sub­division ahead of schedule for inauguration on February 21, 2015.

According to a high-level tourism department source Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina is likely to inaugurate the park. Tripura, which shares an 856-km border with Bangladesh, is building a huge war memorial and Maitri Park to memorialise the heroes of the Bangladesh Liberation War. Work on the Bharat-Bangladesh Moitree Udyan in a border hamlet in southern Tripura was inaugurated by the then External Affairs minister of Bangladesh Dr. Dipu Moni on November 11, 2010.

The “Maitri Park” in Chottakhola has been planned in memory of the freedom fighters and Indian soldiers who died 43 years ago in the course of the struggle for Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan. The freedom fighters had their fortified base camps and launched guerrilla attacks on the Pakistan Army from Chottakhola.

The memorial project, will cost an estimated Rs. 2.3 crore. Situated about 130 km from the State capital of Agartala, it will have a statue of Bangladesh's Founding Father, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Set in a verdant 20-hectare area dotted by seven hillocks and a serpentine lake, the Maitri Park will have a 52-foot-tall tower that will be visible from some parts of Bangladesh. It will have a museum and a library to preserve documents from those historic days when Bangladesh and India stood in unison to defend a just cause.

Tripura was then the desperate destination of thousands of men, women and children, all of whom fled their homes as genocidal elements of the Pakistan Army and local goons carried out mass rape, large-scale murder and arson. Tripura sheltered over 1.5 million Bangladesh refugees, a number that exceeded its own population. Tripura, therefore, occupies a special place for Bangladesh.

The 1971 war for Independence was essentially a national war. Relentless lightning actions of the guerrilla fighters eroded the moral and physical strength of the Pakistani Army. While India played a significant role in supporting the war, the Indian Army directly intervened only after an India-Bangladesh Joint Command was formed in the first week of December 1971 as Pakistan launched an attack on the western front. India lost an estimated 17,000 servicemen.

The war wasagainst a common enemy that had disregarded democratic ideals, perpetrated mass murder and indiscriminate violations upon unarmed civilians.

The “Maitri Park” in Chottakhola should be seen as a testament of historic ties. It will tell future generations the truth: that the two countries stood in unison in the time of need to defend justice and humanity.