Capt Jayant Joshi

Ravi Dhaliwal and Ajay Joshi

Tribune news Service

Pathankot, August 27

Twentyfive days have passed since Capt Jayant Joshi went missing after his chopper Rudra, an Advanced Light Helicopter, crashed into the Ranjit Sagar Dam lake. His parents Harish and Jeevan Tara Joshi are still waiting for elite Navy divers to fish out his body and hand it over to them.

Officers recall Jayant being a boy brimming with youthful exuberance. He was an officer who could do no wrong, personally or professionally.

On August 25, divers retrieved the body of Lt Col AS Batth from the depths of the reservoir. However, there is no trace of Jayant even after the Army pressed into service the state-of-the art diving equipment.

Search seems to have lost way

There seems to be no end in sight. The search seems to have lost direction. With every passing day, our son’s body is rotting and decaying in water. No compassion and respect is being shown to the soldier. —Parents of Capt Jayant Joshi

All efforts being made

All possible methods continue to be deployed by the Army and Air Force. These include the use of hi-tech equipment, including multi-beam sonar, side scanners and remotely operating vehicles. —Officials

The agony, anguish and angst of the Joshis is being directed towards the officers handling the search operations.

“There seems to be no end in sight. The search seems to have lost direction. With every passing day, our son’s body is rotting and decaying in water. No compassion and respect is being shown to the soldier,” they claimed.

However, officials say, “All possible methods continue to be deployed by the Army and Air Force. These include the use of hi-tech equipment, including multi-beam sonar, side scanners and remotely operating vehicles.”

On the day one of the search, the district administration and police sent in divers. However, they were amateurs forcing the Air Force to call professional divers from the Navy.

With no periodic updates on the operation, Joshi’s kin have been left high and dry. Misinformation often fills voids of information. This is precisely what happened as rumours of all kinds started doing the rounds forcing Pathankot Senior Superintendent of Police Surendra Lamba to warn people engaged in malicious gossip.

Jayant was a student of the prestigious Army Public School, Dhaula Kuan, New Delhi. Later he completed his graduation in electrical engineering. He was commissioned in the 9th Sikh Light Infantry in 2017 and two years later joined the Pathankot based 254th Army Aviation Squadron.

The family is distraught. Every dawn brings with it hope. By dusk this very hope slips into oblivion. “We are holding on to hope and belief that our son will be in our midst soon. For us, hope is being able to see that there is light despite all darkness,” said Jeevan Tara

Recalling the exploits of Lt Col Shamsher Singh, 2nd Lt Shamsher Singh Samra and Lance Naik Ram Ugram Pandey

50 YEARS OF THE 1971 WAR

The Maha Virs of 8 Guards

Recalling the exploits of Lt Col Shamsher Singh, 2nd Lt Shamsher Singh Samra and Lance Naik Ram Ugram PandeySHARE ARTICLE

Gurdeep Singh Samra, father of 2nd Lt Shamsher Singh Samra, receiving the MVC (awarded posthumously) from President VV Giri

Sujan Dutta

Hollywood producer Robert Evans of ‘The Godfather’ said every story has three sides: your side, my side and the truth, and nobody is lying. At a stupid border called Hilli in the eastern front of the war, the three sides had names: Lt Col Shamsher Singh, Second Lieutenant Shamsher Singh Samra and Lance Naik Ram Ugram Pandey.

Stories redolent with the truth also destroy shibboleths. Let’s do it first up. The official line then as now is that the war began on December 3 that year. That is a flat lie. What the 8 Guards with the three MVCs were tasked to do is evidence that officialdom lies.

Lies mattered less than a line. A railway line, really, at a point where the border is so intricately carved that a little boy pissing in India could find his deposit crossing an international boundary whichever way a gentle breeze blew. It is that stupid, the border 440 km north of Calcutta, that Englishman Cyril Radcliffe bequeathed. The Partition of India was in reality the breaking up of two provinces — Punjab and Bengal — by squiggly lines.

Lt Col (later Maj Gen) Shamsher Singh was the Commanding Officer of the 8th battalion of the Brigade of the Guards. His battalion was chosen to attack the Pakistani position in Hilli — Hilli is on both sides of the border, the railway station on the Pakistani side — on the night of November 22-23, well before the formal announcement of hostilities. It was to be the “bloodiest battle of the Bangladesh Liberation War”, in the words of the Eastern Command chief, Lt Gen Jagjit Singh Aurora. It was also the longest battle of attrition lasting beyond the Tangail airdrop of December 11.

The Pakistani position was defended strongly. But therein lies another story, a Pakistani one, to be narrated later. The MVC citation reads:

“Lieutenant Colonel Shamsher Singh was commanding a battalion of the Brigade of Guards during an attack on a formidable position in the Eastern Sector. The enemy had put up formidable defences with well-coordinated artillery, tank and machine gun fire combined with mines, wire and booby traps. In spite of strong opposition from the enemy, the battalion launched a series of counter-attacks during which the battalion ran short of ammunition. Undaunted, Lt Col Shamsher Singh engaged in hand-to-hand fighting. He personally directed his troops by moving from place to place and he encouraged his men to hold on to their positions and succeeded in capturing the objective, inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy.”

That was only the beginning for the 8 Guards. By the end of the war, the unit had fought five more battles. It had lost 68 soldiers in the first itself. Hours before his soldiers launched the attack, the first air war had also taken place southeast from his position. Over Boyra, three Pakistani F-86 Sabres were shot down by Indian Gnats. One of the Pakistani pilots who ejected was rescued by a certain Capt HS Panag, then adjutant for the 4 Sikh. The pilot went on to become Pakistan’s air chief decades later. (Panag, of course, is Lt Gen Panag, who retired after heading India’s northern and central commands). So much for the official line that the war began only on December 3

Up in Hilli, where the 8 Guards had crossed the railway line, the Pakistanis put up a stiff fight. The 8 Guards were aiming at Morpara, north of the Pakistani defended position, to which Lt Col Singh assigned a Major to recce it. One possibility would have been to use vehicles but the terrain was boggy, swampy. Even the light PT-76 tanks would be grounded and sitting ducks. The Major was killed. But the position was critical. Shamsher Singh tasked his namesake, Shamsher Singh Samra, to take an RCL and head for it.

The Second Lieutenant (the rank does not exist in the Indian Army any longer) was platoon commander with ‘A’ company. Along with his men, he was held back from the destination by a machine gun nest. He pushed forward, despite taking bullets on a shoulder. After overrunning the nest, they came under fire from a flank

“During the action, our troops came under heavy and accurate fire from automatic weapons. Undaunted by the heavy volume of fire, Second Lieutenant Shamsher Singh Samra encouraged his men to press home the attack. When the officer was about 25 yards from the position, he received a medium machine gun burst in the chest,” reads his citation. The 25-year-old from Tarn Taran, schooled at DAV-Shimla, died holding a grenade in his hand.

That was the nature of the battle of Hilli where wave upon wave of attacks were launched against entrenched and fortified Pakistani positions. Hilli was not the real objective — that was Bogra, a Brigade headquarters east of Hilli, not to be confused with Boyra. The Indians wanted to intercept that to cut off the Pakistan division headquarters at Natore with Rangpur in the north.

Lance Naik Ram Ugram Pandey was with a section that was asked to try and bypass the entrenched Pakistani position in Hilli. He was, says his citation, “commanding a section of a company of a battalion of Brigade of Guards in an attack on an enemy post. The assaulting troops were held up by heavy and accurate fire from well-fortified enemy positions. Lance Naik Pandey crawled up and destroyed in succession two enemy bunkers with hand grenades. He then took up a rocket launcher and destroyed a third bunker when he was mortally wounded and died on the spot.”

Pandey from Ghazipur in UP was killed on November 24, 1971, also before the formal declaration of hostilities. His story did not die with him. It was kept alive for more than 40 years by his widow, Shyama Devi, in Hema-Bansi village of UP’s Ghazipur district.

She kept fighting and pleading for a war widow’s dues. She lived in a dilapidated house that leaked and was open to the elements. After running from pillar to post, she even wanted to return her husband’s laurels. It was one more in a litany of how soldiers’ memories can fade unless nurtured.

Even her recent death with her requests for relief only partly met, is not the end of the twisty tale of the Battle of Hilli that saw three MVCs for a single Indian battalion among other gallantry awards.

The defence of Hilli Bogra was commanded by Brig (later Maj Gen) Tajammal Hussain Malik for Pakistan.

“The battle of Hilli Bogra sector in 1971 war can rightfully be regarded as a classic example of defence in the history of warfare,” he was to repeatedly say later.

Malik refused to lay down arms even after December 16, defying the orders of his shame-faced eastern commander, Lt Gen AAK Niazi, who had signed the instrument of surrender in Dhaka. Indian troops had to drive his divisional commander to him from Natore two days later to make him hand over his service revolver.

Tajammal Malik’s 205 Brigade was the only major one the Indian Army could not break in East Pakistan. He admitted that his army had committed genocide and atrocities on the people of East Pakistan and that had made Bangladesh inevitable.

Nearly four decades after his release as a Prisoner of War and his promotion as a General, he died a bitter man, his thirst for revenge unquenched.

Frustration has sustained on both sides, despite the metal discs pinned to chests. That is the pity birthed in stupid borders.

India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador TS Tirumurti was speaking at the UNSC briefing on Ethiopia

Photo for representation only. iStock

United Nations, August 27

Strongly condemning the terrorist strikes in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul, India has told the UN Security Council that these attacks reinforce the need for the world to stand united against terrorism and all those who provide sanctuaries to terrorists.

Two suicide bombers and gunmen attacked crowds of Afghans flocking to Kabul’s airport on Thursday, killing at least 60 Afghans and 13 US troops.

“Let me begin by strongly condemning the terrorist attack in Kabul. We extend our heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims of this terrorist attack,” India’s Permanent Representative to the UN and President of the Security Council Ambassador TS Tirumurti said on Thursday.

Speaking in the UNSC briefing on Ethiopia, Tirumurti said the attacks in Kabul “reinforce the need for the world to stand united against terrorism and all those who provide sanctuaries to terrorists.”   

US President Joe Biden has vowed to “hunt” down the terrorists and make them “pay” for the deadly attacks outside the Kabul airport.

“To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, we will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay. I will defend our interests and our people with every measure at my command,” Biden told reporters at the White House on Thursday.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, before heading into the UNSC meeting that discussed the humanitarian situation in Tigray, told reporters that he expressed in the “strongest possible way” his total condemnation about the horrific terrorist attack in Kabul. PTI  

Abhishek Bhalla New DelhiAugust 27, 2021UPDATED: August 27, 2021 06:43 IST

Indian Coast Guard (ICG) Ship Vigraha will be commissioned by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on August 28 (Photo: India Today)

Indian Coast Guard (ICG) Ship Vigraha, seventh in the series of Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs), will be commissioned by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in Chennai on August 28, 2021.

The ship will be based in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh and operate on the eastern seaboard under the Operational and Administrative Control of the Commander, Coast Guard Region (East).

The 98-meter OPV, with a complement of 11 officers and 110 sailors, has been designed and built indigenously by Larsen & Toubro Ship Building Limited. It is fitted with advanced technology radars, navigation and communication equipment, sensors and machinery capable of operating in tropical sea conditions. The vessel is armed with a 40/60 Bofors gun and fitted with two 12.7 mm Stabilised Remote Control Gun with fire control system.

ALSO READ | Indian Navy’s procurement of amphibious ships revived after hitting dead end last year

The ship is also equipped with integrated bridge system, integrated platform management system, automated power management system and high-power external fire-fighting system.

The ship is also designed to carry one twin-engine helicopter and four high speed boats for boarding operation, search & rescue, law enforcement and maritime patrol. The ship is also capable of carrying pollution response equipment to contain oil spill at sea. The ship displaces approximately 2,200 tons and is propelled by two 9100 KW diesel engines to attain a maximum speed of 26 nautical miles per hour with endurance of 5000 nm at economical speed.ADVERTISEMENT

The ship, on joining the Coast Guard Eastern fleet, will be deployed extensively for EEZ surveillance and other duties as enshrined in the Coast Guard Charter to safeguard the country’s maritime interests. The ICG, with this ship joining the fleet, will have 157 ships and 66 aircraft in its inventory.

ALSO READ | Indian Navy’s INS Ranvijay, INS Kora carry out maritime exercise with Philippines

New Delhi: India had anticipated the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan but the speed at which it happened was a surprise, Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Bipin Rawat said Wednesday, giving the first official insight into how the government viewed the Afghan situation unravelling.

The CDS said that India was concerned about the possible overflow of terror activities from Afghanistan, adding that contingency plans have been made.

Gen. Rawat, who was speaking at a seminar organised by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), also spoke about the expanding Chinese naval and nuclear power but said India had the capability to take on the northern neighbour and Pakistan in conventional warfare.

“Everything that has happened is something that was anticipated. Only the timelines have changed. From the Indian perspective, we were anticipating the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan…,” he said “Yes, the time lines have certainly surprised us. We were anticipating this thing happening a couple of months down the pipeline.” 

Explaining how he looks at the Taliban, the CDS said, “It is pretty much the same. It is the same Taliban that was there 20 years ago. News reports and expats who have come from there are telling us the kind of activity that the Taliban is into. All that happened now is that partners have changed”.

He also noted that India was concerned that “terrorist activities from Afghanistan could overflow into India”. 

“To that extent our contingency planning was ongoing and we were prepared for it,” he said.

ThePrint had earlier reported that security agencies are worried that the pullout by the western forces and consolidation of power by the Taliban would eventually result in increased terrorist violence in Kashmir.

India has nuclear triad

Asked about reports of China developing new silos for its nuclear weapons, Gen. Rawat said that these are strategic weapons and weapons of deterrence. 

“They are not meant for engaging nations in combat. If a nation is developing bigger arsenals, developing a new strategy for improving their strategic deterrence, it is basically to ensure that you cannot overtake that nation in a jiffy. It is only to enhance their strategic deterrence capability,” he said.  

He added that India was concerned about what is happening anywhere in the region. 

Gen. Rawat pointed out that both Pakistan and China were nuclear powers.

“It is not only our northern neighbour, the western neighbour also has nuclear weapons. We are surrounded by two neighbours who are armed with strategic weapons,” he said “Therefore, we are evolving our strategy accordingly. Studying this intent of our neighbours, we have gone in for a triad. We are also evolving and developing our capability accordingly. We are studying this very carefully.”  

Gen. Rawat added that India was conventionally very strong. 

“We are quite capable of dealing with our neighbours conventionally. We are confident of dealing with both adversaries in the conventional domain,” he said.

(Edited by Arun Prashanth)

Also read: Gen Naravane urged to drop L1 regime from defence procurement. That’s just one problem area

New Delhi: The high-voltage Malabar exercise featuring the navies of all four Quad countries — India, the US, Australia and Japan — began on Thursday off the coast of Guam in the backdrop of the resolve by the four nations to work towards a free and open Indo-Pacific in view of China’s expansionist behaviour in the region.

A range of complex drills involving warships, aircraft and helicopters will be carried out during the four-day exercise which is being hosted by the US Navy in the Western Pacific, officials said.

The Indian Navy has deployed its stealth frigate INS Shivalik, anti-submarine warfare corvette INS Kadmatt and a fleet of P8I maritime surveillance aircraft, they said.

The 25th edition of the Malabar exercise is taking place in the midst of growing convergence of interests in the maritime domain among the four Quad countries.

“Malabar-21 would witness complex exercises including anti-surface, anti-air and anti-submarine warfare drill, and other manoeuvres and tactical exercises. The exercise will provide an opportunity for participating navies to derive benefit from each other’s expertise and experiences,” Indian Navy Spokesperson Commander Vivek Madhwal said.

In an interactive session at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), Commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral John Aquilino on Wednesday spoke about key challenges facing the Indo-Pacific and delved into China’s rapid military build-up including in the maritime domain.

Admiral Aquilino also hinted at the possibility of increasing the number of participants at the Malabar naval exercise if leaders of the four participating countries concur with it.

Following India’s invitation, Australia participated in the Malabar exercise last year that effectively made it a drill by all four member nations of the Quad.

China has been suspicious about the purpose of the Malabar exercise as it feels that the annual wargame is an effort to contain its influence in the Indo-Pacific region.

The Malabar exercise started in 1992 as a bilateral drill between the Indian Navy and the US Navy in the Indian Ocean.

Japan became a permanent member of the exercise in 2015. This annual exercise was conducted off the coast of Guam in 2018 and off the coast of Japan in 2019.https://b331e719b8f6b3b081f59ab1d780fe66.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

Last year, the exercise was hosted in two phases in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea.

There have been mounting global concerns over China’s growing military assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region.

India, the US, Australia, Japan and many other like-minded countries are working towards ensuring a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific.

Also read: Indian Navy to deploy 4 frontline warships early August in next edition of Malabar exercise

Despite promises that Taliban 2.0 will be different, not many are convinced

Legitimacy: The Taliban’s endeavour will be to get other nations to recognise its government, which will not be easy. AP

Julio Ribeiro

The Taliban is anathema to me. It is also anathema to many Afghans who had grown up in the last 20 years of US presence and domination in their not-easily governed country. Students, women and sportsmen come first to mind. They flowered in these two decades. They tasted the freedom that liberal democracies offered and they liked what they saw and what they experienced. The girls, in particular, shed their outsized tents that passed off as burqas, restricting their movements. They took to schooling in a big way, became doctors and lawyers, got elected to what we in India call Legislative Assemblies, sought and succeeded in obtaining jobs as TV news anchors and even formed an Afghan women’s football team!

All that has vanished with the departure of the Americans and the simultaneous entry of the Taliban. The very mention of the word ‘Taliban’ induces fear. Even though the Taliban has proclaimed that Taliban 2.0 will be different, not many Afghans believe them. The memory of their earlier rule still lingers ominously in their mind’s eye.

In their approach to the Taliban, western democracies have chosen caution, so has India. We have decided to wait and watch, a decision that was readily taken in the absence of other options. The great majority of our countrymen, employed or doing business in Afghanistan, are anxious to exit that country and return home. A great many have done so already. They are the lucky ones, evacuated by the IAF or Indian airlines. They went through a trying time, full of adventure and anxiety. Their tales will reverberate with their children and grandchildren before they go off the storytelling grid.

Some Afghan nationals have managed to leave their country to escape from the clutches of the Taliban. They are those whose services were used by the US and other embassies for logistical needs. They had become a part of the ethos of the embassies they served and got accustomed to the goodies those countries provided. In short, they had a taste of the good life, certainly a better life than they were accustomed to.

The US will probably accommodate those who worked for them in their immigration quotas. The UK has also promised British citizenship to a few. Other democracies will follow suit. So, what about India? Our Afghan connection harkens back to the time of Tagore’s Kabuliwala, or even earlier. In fact, a small Afghan settlement has taken root in Kolkata over the past few decades. In Delhi, we have many more Afghan nationals staying for many years.

Union minister Hardeep Puri has cited the present crisis in Afghanistan as justification for the CAA legislated by Parliament in 2019. Since the Act was enacted two years before Taliban 2.0, it cannot be counted as justification for the CAA. Puri may boast of a brilliant ‘forecast’ of probabilities, but the Act is applicable to only those who entered India before 2014!

Hindu and Sikh traders whose forebears had settled in Afghanistan decades ago were also evacuated by our Air Force. Some Afghans who follow the Islamic faith were also among the rescued. They were locals who had helped our embassy or other agencies in supplies and logistics. They would be sitting ducks in the emirate once the Taliban settle down! How are they going to be treated by our present government? Here, too, we can only play the watching game!

These Afghans and the Afghan students now studying in our universities, the Afghan military cadets at present undergoing training at the IMA, Dehradun; the OTA, Chennai; and the NDA, Khadakwasla; as well as the police officers training at the NPA, Hyderabad, need sympathetic consideration devoid of religious bias. We have to rise to the occasion, adopting the secular approach of the US, Canada and Europe. The CAA may need course correction! A great Hindu country like ours cannot let Hinduism down.

To a comparatively uninformed citizen whose knowledge of happenings in Afghanistan is founded entirely on newspapers and the television, the biggest problem the Taliban will face is money to run their administration. The Afghans employed in the US-sponsored government were paid with American assistance. That will not be available now. Smuggling of narcotics and arms has always been a source of income in the countryside. If smuggling routes are effectively sealed, the Taliban will be in big trouble.

The Taliban’s immediate endeavour will be to get other nations to recognise its government. That will not be easy. China and Russia, besides Pakistan, of course, will be ready. Pakistan is almost bankrupt. Only China is economically capable of propping up a nascent emirate which lacks domain experts to run a state.

I presume China with its Belt and Road Initiative will be interested in wielding influence in its own backyard. It has the support of Pakistan, whose sole interest is to use the Taliban and its religious zealots to inflict the ‘thousand cuts’ on us. China will certainly not mind that!

The Taliban have made some conciliatory statements about Indian infrastructure initiatives in their country (we have invested $3 billion), but our leaders will ‘wait and watch’. The dice is certainly loaded against us after the Americans left. The Chinese will probably pick up the slack left by us. We now have the Chinese to watch besides our neighbour to the west. The going will be tough.

The goalposts keep changing every few days and will continue to do so till the Taliban consolidate their hold on the country. The various factions and the numerous warlords will keep the situation fluid. Rumours, not confirmed, suggest that the Taliban have declared August 31 as the last day for ‘foreigners’ (including Indians) to leave the country. If true, such orders will complicate evacuation plans.

• 0

Delegates at the Army-BSF synergy conference in Chandimandir on Wednesday. Tribune photo

Chandigarh, August 25

The Indian Army and the Border Security Force (BSF) held a synergy conference at the headquarters of the Western Command in Chandimandir today.

It was attended by senior officers of the Western Command as well as senior officers from the BSF’s Western Command Headquarters in Mohali and Punjab and Jammu Frontiers.

The conference was chaired by Major General Devendra Sharma, Major General General Staff (Operations), Headquarters Western Command. Senior officers representing the BSF included NS Jamwal, Inspector General, Jammu Frontier, and Sonali Mishra, Inspector General, Punjab Frontier.

The agenda included discussions on issues of convergence to further enhance the operational efficiency between the Indian Army and the BSF. Common issues of training and equipment profile of the BSF and challenges of border management were deliberated upon.

The chairman highlighted the importance of developing a joint security force culture to thwart nefarious designs of inimical elements. During the wars of 1965, 1971 and Operation Parakram, the Army and the BSF operated together towards a common purpose of defending the national borders. — TNS

The UT Administration is likely to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Indian Air Force (IAF) for setting up a vintage aircraft museum at Government Press Building on August 27. File photo

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 25

The UT Administration is likely to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Indian Air Force (IAF) for setting up a vintage aircraft museum at Government Press Building on August 27.

The IAF will showcase vintage aircraft, including Dakota and armaments at the museum. There will also be a flight simulator at the museum. There will also be audio video galleries and a space for showcasing documentaries related to the IAF history.

The museum will bring greater awareness in the region, particularly among children, about the role and contribution of the IAF.

After closing down the building in 2019, the UT Administration then decided to set up a vintage car museum there. After the UT Administration failed to get any response even after floating tenders twice, it was decided to convert the museum into an IAF vintage museum.

The event will showcase the multiple development initiatives taken by the government to upgrade the complex

Prime Minister Narendra Modi. — File Photo

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, August 26

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will dedicate the renovated complex of the Jallianwala Bagh Memorial to the nation on August 28, 2021 via video conferencing.

He will also inaugurate museum galleries developed at the Smarak.

The event will showcase the multiple development initiatives taken by the government to upgrade the complex.

Four Museum galleries have been created at the memorial through adaptive reuse of redundant and under-utilised buildings, a PMO statement said.

The galleries showcase the historical value of events that unfolded in Punjab during that period, with the fusion of audio-visual technology, including projection mapping and 3D representation, as well as art and sculptural installations.

A Sound and Light show has been set up to display the events of April 13, 1919.

“Elaborate heritage restoration works have been carried out in sync with the local architectural style of Punjab. The Shaheedi well has been repaired and restored with a redefined superstructure. The heart of the Bagh, the flame monument, has been repaired and restored, the water body rejuvenated as a lily pond, and the pathways made broader for better navigability,” the government said.https://698da3255f314553da37c6b5621818e8.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

The PMO added that several modern amenities have been added at the site, including redefined paths of movement with appropriate signage; illumination of strategic spots; landscaping and hardscaping with native plantation; and installation of audio nodes throughout the garden.

Also, newer areas have been developed for housing the Salvation Ground, Amar Jyot and Flag Mast.

Union Minister of Culture, Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs, Ministers of State for Culture, Governor and Chief Minister of Punjab; Chief Ministers of Haryana, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh; all Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs from Punjab, members of Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial Trust, among others, will be present on the occasion of the dedication of the memorial to people.