Mark of the martyr in Pakistan

On Bhagat Singh’s birth centenary, Chaman Lal recalls the sites and incidents associated with the freedom fighter in Pakistan

During my recent visit to Pakistan, it was an added attraction to visit sites related to Bhagat Singh’s life. Accompanied by Zubair, a well-known progressive storywriter of Punjabi, I first went to Bradlaugh Hall.

The Hall is now in a dilapidated condition and some training school is being run from there. From the shape of the building, one could make out that it must have been a grand building once. The National College, established by Lala Lajpat Rai, where Bhagat Singh was a student, was located in this building. Fortunately, the foundation plaque is still intact. It was laid by Surender Nath Sen in 1900.

Lajpat Rai Hall of Lahore, which housed the famous Dwarka Dass library, now in Chandigarh, is now held by the fingerprint bureau of Pakistani police. I could not visit this place; I could also not locate Khwasarian village, near Lahore, which was the abode of Bhagat’s Singh family for many years. Even the bank of the Ravi where Lala Lajpat Rai and later Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were cremated could not be located. The Ravi has perhaps dried up and people say it has become a nallah.

I could, however, easily locate the place where J.P. Saunders, Lahore’s Deputy Superintendent of Police, was killed and the DAV College hostel nearby where Bhagat Singh and his friends took shelter after executing the plan. There is not much change in that area, except that the DAV College and hostel have turned into Government Islamia College and hostel now. But the SSP office remains as it was during J. A. Scott’s time. The original plan of the freedom fighters had been to kill Scott, the SSP of Lahore.

I was also able to visit ‘Phansighat’, the execution spot of Lahore jail, which has now been demolished. In its place, Shadman Chowk or Fountain Chowk has come up. It is a residential colony now, with no trace of the jail or its historicity, where hundreds of freedom fighters were hanged.

Democratic Pakistani activists do gather on March 23 at Shadman Chowk to light candles. They also plan to put up a plaque nearby, in memory of the freedom fighters.

Bhagat Singh lived in many houses of Lahore during his underground days and people still talk of those houses. One such house is said to be on the jail road.

I set off for the birthplace of Bhagat Singh with local friends, who arranged for a car. We first headed for Waris Shah’s mazar at Jandiala Sheikh. Visiting the mazar was an experience. Every year a competition of singing ‘Heer’ is held there and it starts with singing of Amrita Pritam’s Aaj Aakhan Waris Shah nun`85. From Jandiala, we moved to Nankana Sahib.

From Nankana Sahib, there was a direct route to Jadanawala, though the road was in a bad condition for a few kilometres. Crossing Jadanawala, a tehsil town, we reached the road leading to Chak No. 105, where a pleasant surprise awaited us. There was a tin board on the roadside, painted with Bhagat Singh’s picture behind bars. Some Jasbeer Singh from Faislabad (old name Lyallpur) had put up this signboard, with his email address. It became easier for us. While we were reading the signboard, some people, seeing our interest in Bhagat Singh, told us about the way to his village.

They suggested that before going to the village, we should meet one Farhan Khan, who lived nearby. Farhan Khan, an 82-year-old retired Excise officer, had his factory named as Gulab Farm, with ‘Bhagat Singh town’ added to the signboard. He belonged to Chak No. 107, Pathankot. We reached his place and in his drawing room, there was an old but framed (with the glass broken) black and white photograph of Bhagat Singh — the typical hat-wearing photograph.

Farhan Khan was happy to talk about Bhagat Singh’s family. He was five years old, when Bhagat Singh was martyred, Bhagat Singh’s younger brothers (Kulbir Singh and Kultar Singh) used to meet him.

We then left for Chak No. 105, accompanied by the man sent by Farhan Khan. When we reached the house of Bhagat Singh, it was not the old one. It was now being shared by three Virk brothers. The almost four kanal area is now being shared by the families of Iqbal Virk, Sadiq Virk and Mushtaq Virk, who were allotted this house after the Partition. They had migrated from Virk village from Amritsar. Out of the three, Sadiq Virk is no more, but his family lives there.

When we reached the house, few women were working near the chullah. Later, we could meet Akhtar Virk, son of Mushtaq Virk, who is now an advocate at Faislabad. He told us that his family not only acquired the house but also the 17-acre mango garden of Kishan Singh, father of Bhagat Singh. The value of this land, we were told, was Rs 6 lakh per acre, which meant that the whole area was more than one crore rupees today.

That Bhagat Singh’s family also had a garden at Chak No. 105 was not known to us earlier yet it did come as a surprise to me. The judge, who wrote the judgment for the execution of Gadar party hero Kartar Singh Sarabha, had clearly mentioned that Kishan Singh (father of Bhagat Singh) had contributed one thousand rupees (nearly one lakh rupees of today) to the cause of Gadar party in 1914 or 1915. The legend of Bhagat Singh and his family becomes more fascinating, because their commitment to the nation overstepped their comforts in life.

Lyallpur was built by British officers as a planned city. This area is very fertile, so peasants from other parts of Punjab were encouraged to buy land there, just as many Punjabi peasants had gone to Terai area to buy lands. Interestingly more people from Doaba went there. They were allotted lands in villages named as "Chak numbers". The families which shifted here attached the name of their village or area to the numbered chaks. Thus Chak No. 65 is Mukundpur, Chak No 67 is Gidderpindi, Chak No. 104 is Samra, Chak No. 105 is Bange (From Banga of Doaba), Chak No 106 is Khurla, Chak No. 107 is Pathankot, Chak No. 109 is Bajajanwala and so on.

These names continued after the Partition as well. Only the landowners and inhabitants of the houses have changed. We were told that prior to 1965, there were not many restrictions and many people visited these places. After 1965, the restrictions increased. In recent years, there has been some relaxation and people are again coming to visit these places. We were told that a bus full of Punjabis from Canada had come to visit the place last year.

An interesting happening in Pakistan is related to Bhagat Singh. Nawab Mohammed Ahmad Khan was a prosecution witness (sarkari gawah) against Bhagat Singh and his comrades in the Lahore Conspiracy case. He rose to become an honorary magistrate in Pakistan. In the 1970s, he was murdered at the same place where Bhagat Singh was executed, i.e. Shadman Chowk.

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