S.K. Sangwar pays homage at the martyrs? column. Pix: Abhijit Chakrabarty

Balurghat, Dec. 12: Vijay Divas was observed at Hili, 26 km from here, today to commemorate the soldiers who had laid down their lives in the war between India and Pakistan in 1971.

Nearly 400 soldiers of both India and Pakistan were killed in the war that continued from November 24 to December 11, 1971, on the Hili border. The war was fought to liberate Bangladesh.

On December 12, the bodies of the soldiers were cremated at a field in Hili, where later, a martyrs? column was constructed by the retired armymen of the district.

Brigadier S.K. Sangwar of 33 Company and commandant of the Assam Rifles R.K. Gaikwad reached here in a helicopter and then drove to Hili to pay their homage to the martyrs. The secretary of the State Sainik Board, Sivaji Chakraborty, district magistrate Saiyad Safarraj Ahmed and senior officials were also present at the programme.

?Nowhere can you find a martyrs? column so near the border. We have sent a proposal to defence minister Pranab Mukherjee asking him to set up a museum here, showcasing the arms used in the 1971 war,? said Chakraborty, who had fought the war at Hili.

Bahar, an NGO, distributed winter clothes among the widows and children of Indian soldiers who died in the war. They also gave Rs 1,000 to each of the war widows. When one of the widows, Sandhya Roy, came up with a complaint that she is yet to get a job, Chakraborty promised that he would solve the problem at the earliest.