CANACONA
The Goa Freedom Fighters’ Association has thanked Chief Minister Pramod Sawant for publicly announcing that a full-size statue of veteran freedom fighter Alfred Afonso hoisting the tricolour flag will be installed at the historic Terekhol Fort in Pernem.
In response to the demand made by GFFA President Rohidas Desai in this regard, Sawant made this announcement at a function held recently in Panaji to release books on the trials conducted by the Portuguese government of six freedom fighters, on the occasion of the death anniversary of Dr T B Cunha.
The freedom fighters were upset since the plaque at Terekhol Fort with the names of Alfred Afonso and 14 other satyagrahis was demolished by the PWD authorities when they began work to install two busts of Hirve Guruji and Sheshnath Wadekar, who laid down their lives on 15 August, 1955.
On 15 August, 1954, a batch of satyagrahis led by Mumbai-based 30-year-old Alfred Afonso from Poinguinim, Canacona, entered Goa from Shiroda in Maharashtra and captured Terekhol Fort. After the Portuguese police ran away, he unfurled the tricolour flag on the flagpole, which remained there until the Portuguese struck back the next morning. This is the sole heroic incident of Goa’s independence struggle where the Indian tricolour was hoisted on the flagpole in Portuguese Goa.
At the function organised by the Department of Gazetteer at Patto in Panaji, the Chief Minister released five books covering the trials of six freedom fighters, including Anthony de Souza, Mark Fernandes, Alfred Afonso, Shrimati Divkar, Shashikala Almeida Hodarkar, and Vilasini Prabhu.
GFFA President Desai also congratulated the Department of Goa Gazetteer for restarting the work of publishing books on Goa’s freedom struggle. At the function, the department also displayed 20 portraits of eminent freedom fighters painted by the students of Goa College of Art. He appreciated the special efforts taken in this regard by Secretary (Gazetteer) Prasad Lolayekar, the department’s executive editor Balaji Shenoy, and Wilfred Goes, the principal of Goa College of Art.
