Ranchi, Nov. 30: Balamdina Ekka's 44-year-old wait will end on December 3 when the octogenarian widow of Bangladesh Liberation War hero Lance Naik Albert Ekka will receive the last remains of her husband from chief minister Raghubar Das at her Jari village home in Gumla.

Albert Ekka, then only 29 years old, was killed on December 3 in the Battle of Hilli during the Indo-Pak War of 1971. Thursday will be his 44th death anniversary. He was posthumously awarded the Param Vir Chakra, India's highest military decoration.

While handing over the Param Vir's pavitra mitti (last remains) in a pital kalash (brass vessel) to Balamdina, chief minister Das is also likely to launch an audio-visual van on the life and times of war heroes as proposed by the Bhutpurv Sainik Kalyan Sangh.

Albert Ekka's samadhisthal (martyr monument) is in a nondescript Dulki village in south Agartala, Tripura. Special courier Janardan Kumar, a head constable with the BSF, brought his remains to Ranchi today and handed it over to Bhutpurv Sainik Kalyan Sangh secretary Anirudhha Singh.

"It will be a huge honour to hand over the remains of Param Vir Ekka to his widow," Das said at Project Building this evening while accepting the kalash from Singh and Gumla MLA Shivshankar Oraon.

Earlier, Balamdina had expressed her desire to receive her martyr husband's remains and Singh had contacted senior army officers for details of where Albert Ekka was cremated.

Das, in the presence of his principal secretary Sanjay Kumar and secretary Sunil Kumar Burnwal, said there are at least 18 other war heroes and freedom fighters from Jharkhand who will receive their due honour in the future.