A witness to bloodshed somehow crossed over

Ravi Chandel

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, August 13

Jia Bagga village in Lahore district of Pakistan still haunts the memory of Bagha Singh (86), a resident of Arya Nagar, who was a witness to the Partition and its aftermath.

Singh said, “Our village was one of the most popular villages of Lahore. My father was one of the few persons who didn’t believe in violence. However, my uncles were rowdy. My mother died after my birth. We were four siblings and I was the youngest.”

“We were living a happy and satisfactory life over there. People of all faiths and castes lived in harmony at the village. As the speculations about Partition grew, people started moving to India. Things were largely peaceful at our village,” he said.

“But, when a train came from Bengal to Lahore in which breasts of Hindu women were cut, everything changed overnight. Mobs of Hindus and Muslims started killing innocent commoners. But nobody dared to enter our village,” he added.

“I remembered a police officer called Cheema, who was very cruel. He started killing Hindus and Sikhs in their villages. He also tried to unleash his wrath at our village but didn’t succeed,” Bagha Singh said.

“A little later, mobs attacked the village again. We gave everything to them but still during our journey from Jia Bagga to the border, they kept attacking us. By the time we reached Amritsar, half of the Hindus and Sikhs were killed,” Bagha Singh added.

“After coming to Amritsar, people started going to their relatives’ houses. We also went to our kin in Amritsar. From there, we started our life from zero. As I was able to bring two buffaloes safely from Pakistan, we started selling milk,” he said.

“Later, somebody told me that the cost of milk was high in Bathinda. So, in order to make a little more money and better livelihood, I shifted to Bathinda,” said Bagha Singh.