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Wednesday, 21 October
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The people’s newsroom

PolicyHome Affairs

Amit Shah leads Police Commemoration Day tribute at National Police Memorial today

The Home Minister will review a joint parade of the central armed police forces and Delhi Police, lay a wreath for the Hot Springs martyrs of 1959 and flag off a 90-rider motorcycle rally against drugs.

From the editorial desk · New DelhiPublished

Key points

  1. Amit Shah will preside over the ceremony at the National Police Memorial in Chanakyapuri.
  2. He will flag off a rally of about 90 police riders headed for the Ekta Parade on 31 October.
  3. The day marks the ambush of ten policemen at Hot Springs, Ladakh, on 21 October 1959.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah will lead the nation’s tribute to police personnel killed in the line of duty on Wednesday, Police Commemoration Day, at the National Police Memorial in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi.

Shah will preside over the main function and address the gathering, the Ministry of Home Affairs has said. The ceremony will feature a joint parade of the Central Armed Police Forces and Delhi Police. The Minister of State for Home, Members of Parliament with a police background, the heads of the central armed police forces and central police organisations, and retired directors general are among those expected to lay wreaths or attend. The programme ends with Shah laying a wreath at the altar honouring the martyrs of Hot Springs.

Why 21 October

On 21 October 1959, ten policemen were killed when heavily armed Chinese troops ambushed them at Hot Springs in Ladakh. The date has been observed every year since as Police Commemoration Day, when forces across the country remember colleagues who have died on duty. Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated the National Police Memorial to the nation on this day in 2018.

The memorial is built around a 30-foot granite monolith cenotaph. Beside it, the Wall of Valour carries the names of police personnel who have died in the line of duty since Independence, and a museum traces the history of policing in India. It is open to the public every day except Monday.

Riders bound for Ekta Nagar

Shah will also flag off a motorcycle rally of about 90 police riders. They come from Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi, and from the CRPF, CISF, BSF, SSB, ITBP and NSG, as well as the Railway Protection Force, the National Disaster Response Force and the National Investigation Agency.

The ministry said the rally is part of a nationwide campaign with the theme “Fight Against Drugs”. The riders will travel to Ekta Nagar in Gujarat for the Ekta Parade on 31 October, the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

A week of remembrance

The observance does not end on Wednesday. From 22 to 30 October, the central forces and police organisations will hold events at the memorial, including visits by the families of martyrs, police band displays, motorcycle rallies, a Run for Martyrs, blood donation camps, essay and painting competitions for children, and film screenings. Police forces in the states will hold similar programmes over the same period.