A newly built sprawling park in north Agartala’s Lichu Bagan area, west of the ‘Welcome Gate’ and Army’s Martyr’s column, is going to bear the name of the 1971 war hero Lance Naike Albert Ekka.
Lance Naike Albert Ekka had made the supreme sacrifice in the prime of his youth, leaving behind a young wife and off-spring in the Tripura-Bangladesh front of the 1971 war with Pakistan during the liberation struggle of Bangladesh.
But the brave heart was being ignored in Tripura for so long without any significant milestone in his remembrance.
Albert Ekka had posthumously won the country’s highest gallantry award ‘Param Vir Chakra’.
In Ranchi, the capital town of Ekka’s home state Jharkhand there is a ‘chowk’ (square) named after him.
Ekka had almost single-handedly wiped out a small Pakistani force and their bunker at Gangasagar opposite to Kamala Sagar in Sipahijala district on Tripura’s border with Bangladesh in early December 1971, shielding in the process his colleagues from danger.
However, the park still awaits completion of work on decoration.
The park is scheduled to be inaugurated by State Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb in presence of AMC chairperson Dr Prafullajit Sinha and local BJP MLA, Dr Dilip Das on June 5 morning.
Sources in the administration said that the naming has been finalized already.