Shaheed Bhagat Singh's house, school in Pakistan be restored: PM

New Delhi, May 8 (UNI) India will take up with Pakistan the issue of Shaheed Bhagat Singh's house, where he was born and the primary school he attended in a village in Lyallpur district of Pakistan, so that it could be converted into an international heritage site.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has directed External Affairs Ministry to raise this issue with the Pakistan Government as part of centenary celebrations of Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh's birth this year.

The Prime Minister took up the matter following a letter to him by Communist Party of India(CPI) General Secretary A B Bardhan who pointed out that the native house of Bhagat Singh and the primary shcool he attended were in a very bad and dilapidated condition. The school was established by Bhagat Singh's grandfather Arjun Singh.

In his letter to the PM on April 5, 2007, Mr Bardhan said steps be taken to get the house repaired and school and house be converted into an international heritage site.

''For this, I request that the Pakistan government be approached ....Pakistan people too cherish Bhagat Singh's memory as much as we do.... And this will be a fitting tribute to the memory of immortal martyr in the centenary year,'' Mr Bardhan's letter said.

After the Partition of Indian Sub-Continent in 1947, Shaheed Bhagat Singh's family had shifted to Khatkal Kslan village in Jalandhar district of Punjab.

Shaheed Bhagat Singh's birth centenary year and also 150th anniverssary of 1857 Uprising of Indian soldiers against the then British colonial government are being celebrated in a big way by the Left parties including Naxalites of various hues throughout the country.

UNI