Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has been reported to be visiting late activist Kanaklata‘s home today situated in Gohpur. Sarma has also been purported to inaugurate some rural hospitals in the Gohpur area, including Gohpur sub divisional civil hospital.
Kanaklata Barua, popularly known as Birbala or Shaheed, was an Indian independence fighter and AISF commander who was gunned down by British police while leading a parade carrying the National Flag during the Quit India Movement in 1942.
Barua was born in the Borangabari region of Assam’s undivided Darrang district, and amid the Quit India Movement, he ended up joining the Mrityu Bahini, a murder squad made up of young people from Assam’s Gohpur sub division. The Bahini agreed to raise the national flag at the local police station on September 20, 1942.
Barua is commemorated by the Indian Coast Guard’s Fast Patrol Vessel ICGS Kanak Lata Barua, which was commissioned in 1997.