The tank at Sagardighi in Cooch Behar. Picture by Main Uddin Chisti

Cooch Behar, July 27: Bengali novelist Bibhuti Bhusan Bandyopadhyay had once dubbed this town the “city of beauty”. The district ex-servicemen’s association has decided to beautify it further by doing up the south-eastern corner of Sagardighi where there is a Pakistani Patton tank, seized as a trophy during the 1971 war of liberation for Bangladesh.

Yesterday, on Kargil Day, at a programme organised to commemorate the fallen soldiers, the association announced that a hoarding depicting famous victories and achievements of the Indian armed forces would be put up behind the Patton tank.

General secretary of the association Tapan Chowdhury said several attempts to draw the attention of the district administration to beautify the south-eastern corner of Sagardighi, where the war trophy is kept, had remained unheard.

“We have decided to raise subscriptions from our members to carry out the work ourselves. Soon we will put up a hoarding with pictures of the achievements of the army, the navy and the air force. It will be like a permanent exhibition that will enlighten the tourists as well as students on the role of our armed forces,” said Chowdhury.

He added that the US-made tank was seized by the Indian army after the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971. The war trophy is one of the tourist attractions in Cooch Behar along with the palaces and the temples that dot the town.

“The tank was initially kept at the Chila Roy army barracks here when it was brought after the Pakistanis were defeated in Bangladesh. Later, it was kept for public viewing at Sagardighi,” Chowdhury said.

However, the area where the tank is kept overran with weeds and turned into a den of criminal activity.

“The district merchants’ association had cleared and beautified the place in 2003 before handing over the upkeep of the tank to us. We have fenced the area and the tank is given a fresh coat of paint every year. All programmes to commemorate the victories of our soldiers and to remember the martyrs are always held here,” Chowdhury said .

Members of the district ex-servicemen’s association will contribute photographs and the army, navy and air force were being contacted for archived pictures to feature in the hoarding.

“We will have photographs of the Kargil conflict, the Bangladesh war of liberation, and pictures of aircraft and ships in action,” the secretary said.