Shaheed Bhai Amrik Singh Biru Babbar

Babbar Khalsa

 

When the government of India attacked our beloved Sri Harimandir Sahib in June 1984 and killed thousands of innocent Sikhs that had come to pay respect on Guru Arjan Dev Ji’s shaheedi Purab, many Sikh youth joined the Sikh Freedom Movement as the Sikhs were denied the justice and the equal rights. The Sikh youth avenged to disrespect of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji and the Sikh gurudwaras. The land of the Sikh gurus, Punjab was destroyed by the Indian security forces and the Sikh youth stood tall against the Indian security forces to stop them from wrecking Punjab. Amongst the singhs of Sikh Freedom Movement was the very young Bhai Amrik Singh Khara Babbar.

Bhai Amrik Singh Biru Babbar was born in the house of Sardar Vajeer Singh and from the womb of Mata Jagmail Kaur in the village of Khara, district Mansa in the year of 1976. Bhai Sahib was the youngest out of the 4 brothers. One of Bhai Sahib’s brothers, Bhai Darshan Singh was a sewadar of Sikh Student Federation, for this reason the Khadku Singh would regularly come to Bhai Sahib’s house. From a young age Bhai Sahib became attached to the singhs of the Sikh Freedom Movement and felt the need to support the movement himself. Bhai Sahib was very humble and spoke to everyone with politeness. While Bhai Sahib studied in the 7thclass, Bhai Sahib had started doing actions at such young age with the local Khadku Singhs. As Bhai Sahib was youngest of the 4 brothers, everybody showed Bhai Sahib love. The family tried its best to keep Bhai Sahib away from the Sikh Freedom Movement as Bhai Sahib was young and still at school. But once a person discovers true love, that person would never let go of that love, and Bhai Sahib’s true love was Sikhi and its struggle. All the attempts of the family to bring Bhai Sahib back home had gone to waste.  Bhai Sahib at a young age was involved in many encounters which he managed to escape unharmed. Bhai Sahib would always remain in chardikala and deep meditation.

Soon the police was informed of Bhai Sahib’s involvement into the Sikh Freedom Movement and started raiding the family house knowing Bhai Sahib had left home. The police once arrested Bhai Sahib’s mother, Mata Jagmail Kaur and took her to the Sadar police station in the Mansa district. The police would come to the family house regularly and threaten the whole family and the family to produce Bhai Sahib at the local police as soon as possible or they will not stop the harassment. Later the police also arrested Bhai Sahib’s father, Sardar Vajeer Singh and the police insanely tortured Bhai Sahib’s parents. The local panchayat got together and stressed the police to release the elderly couple, the police had no choice but to free Bhai Sahib’s parents.

Bhai Sahib was involved in one of the biggest encounter which took place in the village of Horlay. In this encounter Bhai Sahib’s group snatched the weapons of the Indian security forces after defeating them. After this encounter the police increased its harassment towards the family. The Punjab police is known to kill innocent and unarmed Sikhs. Inspector Dharam Singh arrested Bhai Sahib’s father and bought him to CIA HQ in Mansa on 22ndMay 1991. Dharam Singh brutally tortured Sardar Vajeer Singh to get information on Bhai Sahib, but Bhai Sahib’s father took the torture and had nothing to tell the police about his son or his son’s group. Dharam Singh had burnt Sardar Vajeer Singh’s body by continuously electrocuting it, his legs were also crushed and not being able to take the insane torture, the elderly Sardar Vajeer Singh attained shaheedi in the police custody. The police stooped such low levels by declaring Sardar Vajeer Singh an orphan and cremating the body themselves. Even when this happened Bhai Sahib kept himself in chardikala by reciting as much Gurbani as possible and continued doing actions. Some days after his father’s shaheedi, a close friend of Bhai Sahib, Bhai Ghukar Singh Babbar also attained shaheedi in an encounter from which Bhai Sahib managed to escape.

The police were getting desperate, to capture Bhai Sahib or any singh from his group, the police started raiding the house of relatives and friends but anything the police did, did not result and singhs being captured. Once Bhai Sahib and singhs were staying at the village of Tahlian and an informant told please of Bhai Sahib’s location, within hours the Indian security forces had surrounded the whole village. When Bhai Sahib’s brother, Bhai Darshan Singh got the news of his younger brother, he rushed to Tahlian village. By the time Bhai Darshan Singh reached Tahlian, Bhai Sahib and singhs had managed to escape but the police arrested him instead. The police blindly torture Bhai Sahib’s brother and said, “We know that you know many Khadku Singhs, now tell us why you came to Tahlian? Either you give us information on the Khadku Singhs or we will do what we did to your father.” But Bhai Darshan Singh did not utter a word to the police that would have put the singhs of the movement under threat. The police put red hot rods through Bhai Sahib’s legs and after great amount of torture, Bhai Darshan Singh also attained shaheedi. Even after losing his father and brother, Bhai Sahib remained in chardikala and carried on with panthic actions. Due to the police harassment Bhai Sahib’s family had now been scattered all over India and looted Bhai Sahib’s house. The police also destroyed the family farms.

28thMarch 1993, Bhai Sahib and his group of Babbars left Punjab to do actions in the state of Haryana. The group stayed here for a while and punished many anti-Sikh elements. The singhs including Bhai Sahib had been staying in the farms of Shera Singh in the village of Ghaswan. But Shera Singh became a lion and for the greed of many informed the police of Bhai Sahib and his group. The police quickly rushed to the farms of Ghuswan and surrounded the singhs. An intense encounter started soon as the singhs got to know of the police presence. In this encounter, one of the great generals of the Bhai Balwinder Singh Bullet Babbar attained shaheedi along with Bhai Tarsem Singh Bachi Kardi Babbar and Bhai Sukhdeep Singh Chirian Babbar, but Bhai Sahib and Bhai Nihal Singh Barnala Babbar managed to escape once again after losing close fellow singhs to the bullets of Indian security forces. After this encounter Bhai Sahib and Bhai Nihal Singh Barnala Babbar returned back to Punjab.

The movement was now on a downhill as most the great generals of the movement had been killed by the Indian security forces. Bhai Sahib had separated from Bhai Nihal Singh Barnala Babbar and was now alone, but Bhai Sahib still remained in chardikala. Bhai Sahib was staying at someone’s house in the village of Makha, district Mansa. The police surrounded the house after an anonymous person had informed the police about Bhai Sahib. As Bhai Sahib was in the house, the police shouted on the loudspeaker asking Bhai Sahib to surrender to avoid an encounter. But Bhai Sahib shouted back with a sharp voice and said, “Singhs only surrender to the Guru.” Upon hearing this, the police and the CRP blindly fired bullets towards the house that Bhai Sahib was in. Bhai Sahib also returned fire as the Indian security forces tried to come in the house through the front gate, killing a police officer and 2 commandoes. When the cowardly Indian forces could not control the encounter against one Singh of Guru Gobind Singh Ji, they threw grenades into the room Bhai Sahib was in, as Bhai Sahib tried to get out before the grenades exploded but the police fired bullets towards the entrance of the room which kept Bhai Sahib in and the grenades exploded. Bhai Sahib attained shaheedi fighting the Indian security forces and the officers were so scared to go anywhere near Bhai Sahib, so they kept on firing bullets towards the room, in which Bhai Sahib was in. Even then the Police sent the owners of the house to check Bhai Sahib first, in case Bhai Sahib was still alive. The Indian security forces were very scared of the singhs of Babbar Khalsa. Bhai Sahib had attained shaheedi in the encounter against the Indian security forces on Visakhi, 13thApril 1993.

The family of Bhai Sahib are in chardikala today and still hold Bhai Sahib’s Salana Shaheedi Barsi every year on 13thApril. It is painful to say that no panthic party have asked the family, how they are coping. Only in newspapers, these panthic leaders talk about shaheeds but the reality is that, very few panthic leaders are true to their words.

Tavareekh Babbar Khalsa – Karamjit Singh Sikhanwala