As the nation on Saturday observed the second anniversary of surgical strikes that were conducted by the Indian Army troopers on Pakistani terror launch pads across the Line of Control (LoC) on the intervening night of September 28-29 in 2016, the Tripura Chief Minister (CM) Biplab Kumar Deb visited the house of an Army jawan who died 30 years ago while serving his motherland India.
The Chief Minister quietly visited the house of Late Sepoy Rabi Kumar Debbarma in Sepahipara Village of Lembucherra in the outskirts of Agartala and paid floral tributes to the brave soldier who went down fighting for his nation while on duty in a foreign land.
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Deb wanted to send out a clear message that the nation has not forgotten Debbarma’s “supreme sacrifice”.
Late Sepoy Rabi Kumar Debbarma of 4 Assam Regiment, as member of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF), died during a fierce gun battle with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Viswmadu under Kilinochi district of Sri Lanka on July 3, 1988. He was then just 23-years-old.
The following year the then President of India R Venkataraman, awarded Late Debbarma with Vir Chakra (posthumously) and of which he is the lone awardee in Tripura. The CM also met the family members of Late Debbarma including his old parents and took their blessings. He inquired about their family condition and assured that his Government will give “full support to the family as and when required”.
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The family members of the ‘braveheart’ soldier were pleased as a punch on the CM paying a visit to their family and “giving recognition to the supreme sacrifice made by Rabi 30 years back”. The soldier’s parents said that it was for the first time that a minister was visiting their house and this would “encourage many other youths to join the armed forces and serve the nation”.
Earlier, the CM also paid homage at the martyrs’ column at Albert Ekka Park and attended a seminar organised by the ex-serviceman at the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Youth Hostel Auditorium.