Durga puja 2019: Kolkata to witness Balakot airstrikes in pandal
Kolkata, Sep 18: Durga Puja committee in Kolkata is decorating its pandal (marquee) this year on the theme of Balakot air strikes, in which Indian Air Force (IAF) jets had bombed a terror outfit's training camp in Pakistan.
The Young Boys Club Sarbojanin Durga Puja Committee in central Kolkata is recreating the events of the air strike with clay models and digital projection on its 50th anniversary of conducting the annual fiesta.
"Sixty-five models of approaching IAF personnel and fleeing and dead terrorists will be placed at the entrance to the pandal with a model of an IAF aircraft hovering over it," the committee's spokesperson Vikrant Singh told PTI on Saturday.
He said a life-size model of Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman will greet the visitors to the pandal.
Wing
Commander
Varthaman
was
captured
by
the
Pakistan
Army
after
his
MiG-21
Bison
jet
was
shot
down
by
Pakistani
jets
in
a
dogfight
on
February
27,
a
day
after
the
strike.
Before
his
jet
was
hit,
Varthaman
had
downed
an
F-16
fighter
of
the
Pakistan
Air
Force.
He
was
released
by
Pakistan
on
March
1.
"What better an occasion than the 50th year of our Durga Puja to remind the revelers visiting our pandal and to educate our children about the achievement of IAF pilots," he said.
In pics: 4 utmost elements for the preparation of Durga idol
Singh said the forest cover surrounding the targeted camp would be recreated through digital projection.
The models are being crafted by artisans from Purba Medinipur district, he said.
The air strikes in Pakistan's Balakot was conducted by the IAF after a suicide attack on a CRPF convoy in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama on February 14 had claimed the lives of 40 personnel.
Meanwhile, another Durga Puja pandal is getting decorated on a theme on various wings of the Kolkata Police.
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"We will pay tributes to Kolkata Police through digital projection and display of clay models on Bomb Squad,
River Traffic Police, Dog Squad, Cyber Crime Cell and Mounted Police wings of the force," said a spokesperson of Kailash Bose Street Puja Committee in north Kolkata.