Ahmedabad, Nov 26, 2011 : Gujarat Chief Minister Nar endra Modi today called for evolving a strategic consensus and agreem..

Even eight decades after he was hanged, Bhagat Singh remains the
most iconic - and beloved - martyr in the
collective consciousness of India. What has, however,
remained fuzzy all these years, is the exact sequence of events and
the identity of officials involved in the defining execution in
Lahore central jail on March 23, 1931. The British government had
kept its officers' names under wraps fearing retribution. There had
been two assassination bids - on the then Punjab governor Geoffrey
Montmorency and superintendent of police Khan Bahadur Sheikh Abdul
Aziz, the investigating officer against Singh, in the month before
the hanging.
Last week, Bhagat Singh would have turned 104. This article, based
on information gleaned from hitherto inaccessible records in India
and Pakistan, pieces together a stirring account of Bhagat Singh's
final moments.
The meeting to discuss the law and order situation in Punjab was
held at noon on March 16, 1931 at the Governor's House in Lahore.
It was presided over by Punjab Governor Geoffrey Montmorency, still
in pain from the bullet wounds he suffered after being shot by
freedom fighter Hari Kishan Talwar at the convocation at Punjab
University in Lahore a month earlier.
Apart from the governor, the then chief secretary of Punjab DJ
Boyd, home secretary CMG Ogilvie, inspector general of police
Charies Stead, inspector general of prisons FA Barker, deputy
commissioner of Lahore AA Lane Roberts and senior superintendent of
police GTH Hamilton Hardinge - were among those who attended the
meeting.
The meeting digressed into preparations for the impending proposed
executions of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev fixed for the
morning of March 24. The governor reviewed the arrangements and
expressed satisfaction at the law and order situation in the
state.
Defiant till the end : A dust storm swept Lahore
on the night of March 22. Justice MV Bhide, ICS, of the Lahore High
Court, had earlier rejected the petitions challenging the powers of
a special tribunal to issue the death warrants. Thus, the
executions became inevitable.
By the time dawn broke on March 23, the storm had settled. Jail
officials in the central jail spoke in hushed tones in the room of
jail superintendent Major PD Chopra. The Punjab government allowed
the last meeting with Bhagat Singh at 10am. Pran Nath Mehta, his
lawyer, met him. The moment Mehta left, after receiving four
handwritten bunches of papers surreptitiously from Bhagat Singh, a
team of officers led by Stead, Barker, Roberts, Hardinge and Chopra
met Bhagat Singh. Their unsolicited advice to seek a pardon from
the British government was contemptuously rejected by Bhagat
Singh.
The executions had been advanced by a day and were to take place in
the evening of March 23.
The information to Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev was conveyed
by senior jail warden Chhattar Singh. A disturbed and
grief-stricken Chhattar Singh suggested to Bhagat Singh that he
recite the name of god. But Bhagat Singh was busy reading a book on
Russian revolutionary Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.
Moment of reckoning : Bhagat Singh had asked a
Muslim sweeper, Bebe, to bring food for him in the evening before
his execution. Bebe readily accepted the request and promised to
bring home-cooked food for him. But because of the security
clampdown, Bebe was unable to enter the jail that evening.
There was a flurry of activity inside the Lahore jail and outside
because authorities feared unrest.
As noon passed and the clock inched towards evening, the district
civil and police officers camped outside the jail. They were led by
Sheikh Abdul Hamid, additional district magistrate, Lahore; Rai
Sahib Lala Nathu Ram, city magistrate; Sudarshan Singh, deputy
superintendent of police, Kasur; Amar Singh, deputy superintendent
of police (city), Lahore; JR Morris, deputy superintendent of
police, headquarters, Lahore; and hundreds of armed policemen.
With the shooting of the governor fresh in their minds, the
officers and policemen were anxious about their own security. The
investigating officer in the case Khan Bahadur Sheikh Abdul Aziz,
SP, special investigation, had been shot and injured a few days
earlier but had survived.
Stead, Barker, Roberts, Hardinge, Chopra and deputy jail
superintendent Khan Sahib Mohammad Akbar were present inside the
jail. The hangman, called Massih from Shahadra, near Lahore, was
also ready. The moment the three revolutionaries were taken out of
their cells, they shouted inquilab zindabad (long live the
revolution).
Pindi Dass Sodhi, secretary, district Congress, Lahore lived near
the central jail. The slogans were clearly heard at his house.
After hearing the shouts of the three men walking to their deaths,
the other prisoners joined them in the sloganeering.
Nothing to mask : Deputy commissioner AA Lane
Roberts was a loquacious officer of the 1909 batch of ICS. When the
three young men reached the hanging site, he spoke to Bhagat Singh.
Singh confidently said that people would soon see and remember how
Indian freedom fighters bravely kiss death.
They refused to wear masks over their necks. In fact, Bhagat Singh
threw the mask at the district magistrate. Singh and his companions
hugged each other for the last time, and shouted "down with the
British empire".
Massih pulled the lever. Bhagat Singh was the first to hang. He was
followed by Rajguru and Sukhdev.
Lt Col JJ Harper Nelson, principal of King Edward's Medical
College, Lahore and Lt Col NS Sodhi, civil surgeon, Lahore, were
inside the jail at the time of the executions but did not witness
the hangings. After the hangings, the three were confirmed dead by
the civil surgeon.
A huge crowd had gathered outside the jail, but two vehicles led by
deputy superintendent of police Kasur Sudarshan Singh and deputy
superintendent of police (city) Amar Singh accompanied by three
trucks of soldiers of black watch regiment took the bodies and left
for the cremation at 10 pm. Sudarshan picked up a granthi and a
priest named Jagdish Acharaj from Kasur and set the bodies on fire
outside Ganda Singh Wala village in the night. The bodies were
still burning when people from different areas, including
Ferozepur, reached there and a ruckus followed.
The bodies were later thrown in river Satluj.
By RK Kaushik, Hindustan Times,
The author is an Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer based
in Punjab
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