Rawat pays tributes to martyrs of 1971 Indo-Pakistan war

Chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Saturday paid floral tributes to the soldiers who laid down their lives during the 1971 India-Pakistan war at the Martyrs’

Chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Saturday paid floral tributes to the soldiers who laid down their lives during the 1971 India-Pakistan war at the Martyrs’ Memorial at Gandhi park here at a function to mark the Vijay Diwas.

Rawat said 248 soldiers from Uttarakhand lost their lives in the India-China war and 78 (soldiers from the state) suffered injuries. (HT PHOTO)

The Indian army forced the 90,000 soldiers of the Pakistan army to surrender on December 16, 1971, he said.

“As a result, a new nation in the form of Bangladesh was born,” Rawat said. “India’s victory over Pakistan gave a new identity to her strategy, politics and her international relations at the world level.”

Rawat said 248 soldiers from Uttarakhand lost their lives in the India-China war and 78 (soldiers from the state) suffered injuries.

“Some 74 war veterans from the state were awarded Bravery Medals. Out of them, 36 brave hearts belonged to Dehradun,” he said, adding that Uttarakhand was known as a state of soldiers.

The mountain state got a distinct identity of its own owing to its brave soldiers, Rawat said, adding that consequently “it (Uttarakhand) is directly or indirectly appreciated across the country”.