Punjab's French Connection: French Town Saint Tropez To Install Statue Of Maharaja Ranjit Singh
Darpan News Desk IANS, 20 Jul, 2015 10:11 AM
A statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh will soon be installed in a coastal town of France following years of efforts by a historian and descendant of a French officer who served under the Sikh king, a media report said on Monday.
The statue will be installed at Saint Tropez along with the statue of General Jean-Francois Allard, who served as a military adviser to the king of Punjab from 1822 to 1839, Sikh24.com reported.
Jean-Francois Allard was an officer in the Napoleon army before being exiled to India in 1822. Maharaja Ranjit Singh appointed him to train his royal brigade -- Fauj-e-Khas.
The installation of the statue has been made possible by Henri Prevost Allard, who is the deputy mayor for tourism of Saint Tropeza and a direct descendant of Jean-Francois.
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Pakistan on Thursday rejected a claim by the Afghan intelligence agency that an officer of Pakistan's spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, and the Haqqani Network were involved in the attack on the Afghan parliament earlier this week.
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US-born son of immigrant parents from India, he converted from Hinduism to Christianity as a teen, and was later baptised a Catholic as a student at Brown University.
