Amritsar: Activists demand memorial for martyrs of Saka Panja Sahib

Amritsar, October 9

Activists of a local NGO have written to the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) to raise a memorial in memory of martyrs of the Saka Panja Sahib.

Principal Kulwant Singh Ankhi, a social activist, said it is the demand of Sikhs worldwide to the authorities of the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee to raise a memorial at Gurdwara Panja Sahib (Hasan Abdaal, Attock district, Pakistan) in the memory of Bhai Partap Singh and Bhai Karam Singh, who embraced martyrdom on October 22, 1922. Their martyrdom is remembered by Sikhs worldwide with devotion while mentioning Saka Panja Sahib.

Many Sikh devotees were brutally tortured by the British Police, during the Guru Ke Bagh Da Morcha. The SGPC had launched the morcha (agitation) to free the historical Gurdwara Guru Ka Bagh from a morally-corrupt Mahant, whom the British Government was patronising.

After torturing the Sikh Jathas, they were detained and sent to various jails. A jatha of Sikh prisoners was sent from Amritsar to the Attak jail by train. As the route was very long, Sikhs under the leadership of Bhai Partap Singh and Bhai Karam Singh decided to provide milk, sweets, fruits and meals (langar) to them. The leadership requested the station master of Hassan Abdal railway station to halt the train, but he expressed his inability. The Sikh leaders spontaneously decided to sit on the railway track to halt the train. The train reached the station and halted after crushing the bodies of Bhai Partap Singh and Bhai Karam Singh and wounding many others. Bhai Partap Singh and Bhai Karam Singh embraced martyrdom.