Secretary to the Ministry of Defence Eng. Karunasena Hittiarachchi attended the event and paid floral tributes at the monument during the ceremony yesterday morning.

The ceremony is held in memory of all those brave souls who paid the ultimate sacrifice in the defence of the motherland. The main ceremony in Colombo was preceded by a number of Poppy Walk events in Colombo and other regional cities including kandy and Galle.

The War Memorial in Colombo was initially erected in November 07th, 1921 at the Galle Face but the cenotaph was later dismantled and reassembled at its present location during the Second World War as it was thought to be a prominent land mark for approaching enemy reconnaissance aircraft.

In October 2002 another unique monument was put up at Mailapitiya in Kandy in honour of fallen heroes. It consists of several landings to represent three forces and the police and names of War Heroes killed and missing in action have been inscribed in granite plaques placed in the landing sites.

Tri forces commanders, Colombo Mayor, members of the diplomatic corps, military veterans and members of their families and a large number of service personnel attended the event.