Jairampur (Arunachal Pradesh), Jan. 20: When treasure hunters had dug up a site littered with brick structures in 1997, they had no idea that they were digging up history.

At the very site, once a thickly covered jungle area, 6km from this small and sleepy town in Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh, Union minister of state for defence M.M. Pallam Raju today inaugurated the renovated Jairampur War Cemetery.

The cemetery is the largest in the Northeast with more than 1,000 graves dating back to World War II.

The treasure hunters, finding nothing but of value, had tried to sell of some of the bricks they had unearthed.

“It was at this time that a public works department engineer came across these bricks and was amazed by the inscriptions on them, which were later confirmed to be Chinese. The search for history began at that moment and today we have this important historical monument,” A.K. Yadav, assistant engineer of the Arunachal Pradesh water resources department posted under the Kharsang subdivision in Changlang district said today.

The total area of the cemetery is around 3.5 acres. Governor Gen. (retd) J.J. Singh laid the foundation stone of the cemetery’s renovation on January 2 last year.

The construction was done under the supervision of the water resources department and funds to the tune of Rs 1 crore was provided by the state tourism ministry

“It was a Herculean task for all of us engaged in the job for the past one year as we had to overcome several odds. First of all, there was a big labour problem as the local people were unwilling to work at the site since it was a graveyard and many superstitions were associated to it,” Yadav said.

“Secondly, we had to carry water from a far-off place, say around 3km for construction and thirdly, there was also shortage of power for which we had to use generators. However, overcoming all odds we managed to complete the construction within a very short span of time,” Yadav added. Unlike many other cemeteries, the World War II cemetery here has a mix of both Allied Forces and the Chinese soldiers buried, as casualties took place during the build-up to the war as well as during it. Besides, several bodies of workers associated with the construction of the Stilwell Road, are also buried in the cemetery.

The water resources department staff, who were entrusted with the project work, were, however, cautious not to disturb the originality of the graves.