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Memorial created in Ottawa to remember Indian diplomat K Sankara Pillai
He was assassinated on April 19, 1961 in Ottawa at the age of 38 and the memorial marked the 60th anniversary of that tragedy
A memorial has been created at the Indian high commission in Ottawa in memory of K Sankara Pillai, who was widely considered the first diplomat “martyr” of independent India.
Pillai was assassinated on April 19, 1961 in Ottawa and the memorial marked the 60th anniversary of that tragedy.
The consular waiting area at the high commission in the Canadian capital has been named after him as the K Sankara Pillai Memorial Hall. A sapling was planted on the high commission premises in his memory as well.
Pillai was serving as the first secretary at the high commission in Ottawa when he was killed by Shani Ferizi, who was of Yugoslavian origin. Pillai had just finished lunch and had gone to greet Ferizi when he was gunned down.
Ferizi had earlier been denied a visa to travel to India as he was blacklisted in the country.
Pillai was 38 when he was killed and was survived by his pregnant wife and two children. He belonged to the first batch of the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and his death was condoled in the Indian Parliament by then PM Jawaharlal Nehru.
A virtual memorial meeting was also organised by the high commission, with India’s envoy Ajay Bisaria saying the effort was to create a “permanent institutional memory” so that the late diplomat was not forgotten.
In a message, India’s foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said the recognition of Pillai’s “sacrifice” had been “long overdue”.
External affairs minister S Jaishankar, a former IFS officer, tweeted in remembrance and said the high commission had “appropriately named a hall in his memory”.
The virtual memorial meeting was attended by Pillai’s three children as well as retired diplomat TP Sreenivasan, who triggered the commemoration with an article on the episode last year.
A film on Pillai’s life and his shocking demise was featured at the event.
