JAMSHEDPUR, Jan. 2 -- Jharkhand chief minister (CM) Hemant Soren on Thursday announced to form a special committee under a retired judge to find and identify the families of the hundreds of martyrs killed in the firing by the Odisha Military Police (OMP) on January 1, 1948 while the tribal villagers were opposing the merger of Seraikela Estate (including Kharsawan) with Odisha. The CM was speaking at the Martyrs Park in Kharsawan after paying floral tribute at Martyrs Memorial of Kharsawan Firing on Thursday. "We will form a special committee to identify the martyrs of the Kharsawan Firing on the New Year day in 1948 and find out their families now. The draft in this regard has come to me and I am studying it - what will be the role of the administrative officials in the committee and how the martyrs will be identified. A retired judge will head the committee. The martyrs will be identified and their families will be found before next year's Martyrs Day and they will be honoured," Soren said. It may be noted here that CM Soren had announced to identify the martyrs of Kharsawan Firing on the Martyrs Day in Kharsawan on January 1, 2021 too. "Our previous government in the state had found out the families of the martyrs of the Gua Firing and had given them jobs. We will find out all the families of the martyrs who had sacrificed their lives in Kharsawan Firing on January 1, 1948. We will honour them and give financial assistance," Soren had said in his speech on January 1, 2021. Soren had announced government jobs to the kin of martyrs of Kharsawan Firing on January 1, 2025 too. "Government jobs will be given to one family member of the martyrs of Kharsawan Firing on the lins of martyrs' families of Gua Firing in 1980," Soren had said. During short tenure of Soren as CM in 2013-14, eight of the 10 tribals killed in Bihar police firing in 1980 were identified and their kins were handed over appointment letters by Soren himself. The CM also said that the Kharsawan Martyrs Park would be made a grand park and opened for the public soon. "Work is ongoing to develop the Kharsawan Martyrs Park into a grand park and it will be opened for the public soon," Soren said on Thursday, responding to a media question that the park is closed on all days and is opened only on the Martyrs Day every year. "Today is the Martyrs Day and also the New Year day. Entire world is celebrating Happy New Year but for the tribals and moolvasis of Jharrkhand, farmers, labourers, today is Martyrs Day. People are picnicking but we are remembering the martyrs. Jharkhand's history is glorious - be it Kolhan or Santhali, be it North and South Chotanagpur or Palamu. The history of these areas is full of martyrs. There is hardly any state with so many martyrs. The loot of the mineral resources, poor Adivasis and Moolvasis, their Jal, Jungle and Jameen (Water, Forests and Land) has been continuing for over 100 years here. But the great sons of this land have sacrificed their lives to protect this. We fought with the British, were hit by police bullets, yet we kept on fighting, and that is why we are alive. The greatest example of this is Kharsawan. We are descendants of such heroes who never bowed down. We pay tribute and bow our heads to our martyrs to keep that fighting emotion alive and kicking," asserted Soren. Earlier, Kharsawan MLA Dashrath Gagrai said that the Kharsawan Firing was the biggest incident of police firing in independent India. "It happened when the Nation was celebrating New Year only four and half months after independence when Odisha government opened fire on the tribal society here. The government could not identify the martyrs of Kharsawan Firing as of now. When I became MLA for the first time in 2014, I had raised this issue and demanded the formation of a judicial probe commission to identify the martyrs. Subsequently, the then CM Raghubar Das had formed a commission following which two martyrs of the Kharsawan Firing - Mahadev Buta of Kharsawan and Singrai Bodra of Baidih ( Kuchai) - were identified and Rs 2 lakh each were given to their families. But in 2017, when CM Raghubar Das came here to pay tribute to the martyrs on Martyrs Day, some people opposed him over the issue of CNT-SPT Act and unfortunately even slippers were thrown on him. The work of identifying the martyrs of Kharsawan Firing was stopped. People from other states too were martyred in the Kharsawan Firing and they too should be identified and honoured," said Gagrai. Apart from Gagrai, Singbhum MP Joba Majhi, state transport minister Deepak Birua, Chakradharpur MLA Sukhram Oraon, Manoharpur MLA Jagat Majhi and Ichagarh MLA Sabita Mahato also paid floral tribute at the Martyrs Memorial....