Diamond Thoughts

“Does it matter if I die in bed, get killed in a road accident, or die for my cause?”
(These words were said to his father by Shaheed Jaswant Singh Khalra on September 3, 1995)
There is a difference, Bai Singh!  The difference is really martyrdom!
“Does it really matter whether I die on my bed, in an accident or as a martyr of my cause?”
(Words of Jaswant Singh Khalra to his father on 3rd of September 1995)
Yes it does, martyr!

If you want to play love
Come to my alley !!
The path is paved
Don’t listen to the head !!

  On the very next day, September 6, 1995, S.  Jaswant Singh Khalra was martyred for raising his voice for humanity and human rights.  I am in love with every soul that has fulfilled its duty to be human.  Khalra, in true words, became the son of Nanak, who called Babar a tyrant while standing in his court, and drank Shahidi Jam at the hands of some tyrannical officers of the Punjab Police.  Shaheed Jaswant Singh Khalra was a director of a bank in Amritsar.  Once when he searched the records of the Amritsar Municipal Committee to search for a missing friend, he saw that the bodies of hundreds of people had been cremated as unknown.  Upon investigation, he came to know that these were the cremations of the bodies of Sikh youths who had been killed in Punjab between 1984 and 1995 under the guise of fake encounters and their bodies were cremated as ‘unknown’.  .

After looking at the records of the Amritsar Municipal Committee, he collected the records of three other districts and found that the bodies of thousands of Sikhs had been cremated as unidentified bodies.  He had gathered all the evidence to expose this atrocity.  He also visited Canada and briefed foreign governments and the public on the issue.  The National Human Rights Commission released a list of such atrocities (cremation of 2097 unidentified bodies) in Amritsar, Majitha and Tarn Taran from June 1984 to December 1994.  Gill, the tyrant SSP of Amritsar.  The sins of Ajit Sandhu and other tyrant officers shook and they decided to eliminate Jaswant Singh Khalra.

On September 6, 1995, police sent by Ajit Sandhu (including Ashok Kumar DSP, Surinderpal Singh SHO, Sarhali and Prithipal Singh Head Constable Manochahal Police Station) arrested Jaswant Singh Kalra.  He washed his car in front of Kabir Park, Amritsar and took it to Jhabal police station.  There DSP.  Under Jaspal’s supervision, seven soldiers pulled his legs on both sides and kicked him in the chest;  He was shot dead and his body dumped in the Harike canal.

After much fuss, international pressure and a legal battle, the CBI probe was launched.  Nine policemen were prosecuted.  Ten years after the murder, a sessions court on November 18, 2005 sentenced six of them to seven years in prison.  The High Court on October 16, 2007 increased the sentences of four of them, Satnam Singh, Surinderpal Singh, Jasbir Singh (three sub-inspectors) and Prithipal Singh (head constable) to life imprisonment.  However, two convicts in the murder case (KP Gill DGP and Ajit Sandhu SSP) escaped punishment.  Ajit Sandhu was reported to have committed suicide by jumping in front of a vehicle on May 23, 1997 for fear of imprisonment.  But it is rumored that he killed someone else by putting on his clothes and fled to the US on a duplicate passport and went into hiding;  And other criminals K.P.  Gill was never prosecuted.

On the day of his martyrdom, all the people who speak of humanity and human rights will pay their respects to Shaheed Khalra Ji and the humanity of that great soul will always be indebted to him.

See you tomorrow on the martyrdom day of Shaheed Khalra Sahib at Gugudwara Kabir Park Shri Amritsar Sahib.