Parents of Shaheed Satwant Singh Ji being honored
AMRITSAR SAHIB (KP)—Sikh Sangat all over the world joined together in commemorating the sacrifices of Bhai Satwant Singh, Bhai Beant Singh, Bhai Kehar Singh and Bibi Surinder Kaur. Programs were organized in different places to mark the eighth anniversary of their martyrdom.
An Akhand Path Sahib was organized at Gurdwara Jhande Bunge at Sri Harmandir Sahib Complex and was well attended by Sikh Sangat from all over Punjab and leaders of different Sikh organizations. Katha, kirtan and Dhadi Vaars were performed by eminent Jathas in memory of Bhai Satwant Singh, Bhai Beant Singh and Bhai Kehar Singh who had brought Indira Gandhi to justice and halted her genocidal plot against the Sikhs.
After Bhog of Akhand Path Sahib, Bhai Narinder Singh (Benaras) performed bir-russ kirtan. Eminent Dhadi Jatha of Bhai Mehal Singh (Chandigarh) presented the history of the brave act of the three Singhs in poetic form. Katha was performed by Singh Sahib Giani Jagtar Singh and Singh Sahib Giani Jaswant Singh who shared Gurmat oriented views and asked Sikh youth to walk on the path of the great Shaheeds.
Shaheed Satwant Singh and Bibi Surinder Kaur
A special program was also organized at the Gurdwara Sahib of village Agwan Khurd. Along with remembering the lives of Bhai Satwant Singh, Bhai Beant Singh and Bhai Kehar Singh, Sikh Sangat joined to remember the sacrifice of Bibi Surinder Kaur, wife of Bhai Satwant Singh. Leaders of different Panthic and political organizations were present at the program.
Background
Bhai Satwant Singh, was born in 1962 in the house of his father Sardar Tarlok Singh and Sardarni Pyar Kaur, in the village Agwan Kurd, district Gurdaspur. He and Beant Singh were bodyguards to the Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi, who on October 31, 1984 they assassinated in the garden of her residence.
The assassination was motivated by Operation Blue Star, the attack on the Sikh "Golden Temple" in Amritsar, which had been thought to be occupied by armed Sikh revolutionaries. Satwant Singh and Beant Singh fired around sixteen bullets into Indira Gandhi's chest and abdomen.
Beant Singh was killed by gunfire as, after his arrest, he struggled with a commando for his weapon.
Satwant Singh was arrested and later sentenced to death by hanging, along with another Sikh, Kehar Singh, was charged as a conspirator . The sentence was carried out on January 6, 1989.
Shaheedi
On the 6th of January 1989, at 4am - the time the Sikhs call Amrit Vela, the authorities walked Kehar Singh and Satwant Singh towards their nooses, their voices could be heard from outside the jail, shouting, "Jo Bole So Nihal ! Sat Siri Akaal (God is truth - he who says this will be saved!)" Then after a few moments silence, as both of them stepped forward and kissed the hangmans noose, a very heavy rainfall started to fall.
Their bodies were taken to Ferozpur, and cremated on the banks of the Sutluj river. The Indian Government did not hand over the bodies of Shaheed Satwant Singh and Shaheed Kehar Singh to their next of kin. Their bodies were cremated within Tihar jail.
After the bodies were cremated, the authorities did not have the heart to hand them back to the families, the mens' lawyer, Sardar Bhupinder Singh Sodhi said to the authorities, "I can understand you have hatred for those spirits who killed Indira Gandhi, but how can you even have hatred for their corpses?" Satwant Singh and Kehar Singh were the last men to be hanged in Tihar Jail.
