Balasore, Sept. 10: Residents and a 50-member team from Bengal called Rakta Tirtha Yatris today paid tributes to freedom fighter Jatindra Nath Mukherji, better known as Bagha Jatin, who laid down his life on this day in 1915 while fighting against the British forces at Chasakhand near this town. His place of martyrdom is called “Rakta Tirtha”.

Bagha Jatin and his aides had hidden inside the Kaptipada jungle in Mayurbhanj district to evade being arrested by the British, but a police team, headed by Charles A. Teggart, surrounded them. After escaping from the place, they again encountered the cops in Chasakhand, 10km from Balasore, while waiting for the arrival of a consignment of arms from Balasore coast. The consignment never arrived and they were chased by the police. The revolutionary succumbed to the bullet injuries in the district headquarters hospital on September 10, 1915, after he refused to undergo treatment in the hands of British doctors.

The team from Bengal today visited Desuan pokhari in Chasakhand, which is a government girls’ school (then district hospital) and the district jail.

The visitors included four freedom fighters, headed by Sudhir Maitra, 97. “Bagha Jatin’s sacrifice has made the bond between Odisha and Bengal strong. The present generation should follow the footprints of the hero,” said Maitra.

Rajiv Bandopadhyay, the secretary of the team from Bengal, said they would be holding different programmes to propagate the supreme sacrifice of the revolutionary.

“It is a matter of pride for our district as well as state. This year associations of Bengal and Odisha will jointly publish a souvenir on the hero,” said Haren Chandra Rana, secretary of the memorial committee, Balasore.

State information and public relations minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, today said, “The Baghajatin Park at Desuan pokhari will be developed and better road connectivity will be made available for tourists.”