Agartala: Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar inaugurated the Indo-Bangla Friendship Park at Chottakhola in South Tripura district, around 130km from here, on Vijay Divas.

Sarkar said the park, spread over 20.2 hectares and built at a cost of Rs 7 crore, will celebrate the historic friendship between Tripura and Bangladesh.

"They will remember muktijoddhas (liberation warriors) from Chottakhola as long as the history of the Bangladesh Liberation War is remembered," he said.

He lauded Indira Gandhi's bold decision to support the freedom struggle of Bangladesh and said Tripura wholeheartedly supported it.

Tripura played an integral role in the Bangladesh Liberation War and stop the atrocities on Bengali-speaking people of then East Pakistan. The Indian government and its army extended active support to the Bangladesh freedom fighters. A number of guerilla training camps operated out of Tripura and Chottakhola had three such camps.

Statues of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her then Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Mujibur Rahman have been installed in the complex. A space has been given to the Indian Army to set up a memorial.

Senior minister Badal Choudhury, who has ancestral roots in Noakhali district of Bangladesh, said India and Bangladesh share a warm bilateral relation and stress should be laid on cultural exchange and connectivity, including access to Chittagong port.

A cultural troupe from Bangladesh performed at the park.

Army officers and personnel also paid homage to the martyrs of Bangladesh Liberation War.

The Bangladesh Assistant High Commission organised a programme and cultural event here.