Tributes paid to five martyrs of Assam movement

NALABARI, Feb 13 : Rich tributes were paid to five martyrs of the Assam movement at Pipalibari village in Nalbari district at the two-day silver jubilee programme of their 25th death anniversary.

The five martyrs of the Pipalibari who were killed in a police firing during a farmers rally were Kanyaram Das (Barnibari) Maheswar Talukdar (Pipalibari) Birendra Narayan Das (Pipalibari), Srikanta Barman (Bari) and Pratap Ch Barman (Tengabari).

The silver jubilee function was started with the flag hoisting by Kshitish Ch Barman, president of the silver jubilee celebration committee. On the occasion, a symposium on the relevance of swahid divas was held which was conducted by Pramod Ch Thakuria.

Addressing the seminar, the outgoing president of Asam Sahitya Sabha, Kanak Sen Deka, lamented that the purposes of the historic Assam movement had not served. For that, he equally blamed the AGP, BJP and Congress. Criticising the AGP Government, the Sabha Chief further stated that the AGP Government was ousted from the power only due to their failure to give proper respect to the martyrs who sacrificed their valued lives.

The adviser of AJYCP, Dilip Patgiri and Hemanta Dutta, president of Nalbari Zilla Sahitya Sabha also spoke in the seminar. In the evening 856 earthen lamps were lit in memories of the martyrs.

On the concluding day, a cultural procession was taken out in the locality.

The open meeting was held with Kshitish Ch Barman in the chair. The meeting was addressed, among others, by AGP president Chandra Mohan Patowary, former Minister Durga Das Boro, former MLA, Bhupen Roy; litterateur Arupa Baruah, playwright Jiten Sarma.

The souvenir Rakta Lipi, published on the occasion, was released by Chiranjeev Jain, former principal of MNC Balika Mahavidyalaya. The other guests of the open meeting were Kumar Dipak Das, Dr Samujjal Kumar Bhattacharyya, Sarbananda Sonowal, Dr Arun Kumar Sarma, Birendra Prasad Baishya and Phanibhushan Chaudhury. In the open meeting, the next kin of the five martyrs were publicly felicitated with japi and gamocha.