NEW DELHI - FULL-PAGE advertisements filled Indian newspapers on Saturday to mark the 25th anniversary of former prime minister Indira Gandhi's assassination.

'A grateful nation will never forget your sacrifice,' declared an ad placed by the petroleum ministry, one of several government departments that funded notices honouring Gandhi, who was known as India's 'Iron Lady.'

Premier Manmohan Singh and Gandhi's daughter-in-law Sonia, president of the ruling Congress party, were among those who paid tribute to the slain leader at various memorial sites around New Delhi.

'People remember her indomitable courage, taking up the cause of the underprivileged... and in ensuring social justice and greater national integration,' Congress party spokeswoman Jayanthi Natarajan told reporters.

Newspapers ran retrospectives remembering Gandhi, India's only female prime minister, on what the government has designated 'Martyrdom Day.' The Times of India ran an ad placed by the Congress party which used a quote by the former leader in which she spoke of her own demise.

'If I die a violent death as some fear and a few are plotting, I know the violence will be in the thought and the action of the assassin, not in my dying,' she said. 'No hate is dark enough to overshadow the extent of my love for my people and my country.' -- AFP