Shaheed Bhai Balwinder Singh Bullet

Babbar Khalsa / Bhindranwale Tigers Force of Khalistan

The list of Sikhs that gave shahadat in the Sikh Freedom Movement started by Sant Jarnail Singh Ji Bhindranwale is very long. The name of Shaheed Bhai Balwinder Singh Bullet Babbar is amongst the top generals of the Sikh armed struggle. Bhai Balwinder Singh Bullet Babbar was born in the house of Sardar Jeeon Singh Khalsa and from the womb of Mata Jagdev Kaur in 1957, village Talwandi Akalian, district Mansa. From childhood the family named Bhai Sahib, Mithu. Bhai Sahib had 3 brothers and 2 sisters. The whole family was closely attached to Sikhi. Bhai Sahib and family were Amritdhari and never missed their Nitnem. Bhai Sahib was saintly and had a warm personality. Even when Bhai Sahib was farming at his fields, he would also recite Sikh prayers and always talk about panthic shaheedi.

Bhai Sahib studied up till 10th class at the local school of his village, these days the Sikhs of India were being oppressed. Sri Harimandir Sahib had been attacked by the Indian government. Looking at the state of Sikh panth, Bhai Sahib started doing sewa with the local Khadku Singhs. Soon the police found out and arrested Bhai Sahib, at the police station Bhai Sahib was blindly tortured, but this did not stop Bhai Sahib from continuing sewa within t Sikh Freedom Movement. Bhai Sahib was released and straight away met fellow singhs to continue being a part of the movement. Even when Bhai Sahib studied at school, he would carry a revolver with him at all times. Bhai Sahib was an open minded person and also brave. The locals named Bhai Sahib’s house as the house of Khalsa. The village would not call Bhai Sahib’s father by name, instead they would call him with the name of Khalsa.

Joining Babbar Khalsa

Bhai Sahib first joined the Bhindranwale Tigers Force with singhs such as, Bhai Makhan Singh Bir Kalan, Bhai Balvir Singh Bharur, Bhai Gurjant Singh Nandgarh, Bhai Baldev Singh Chakrian and many more. While doing actions with the singhs of Bhindranwale Tigers Force, Bhai Sahib came in contact with Jathedar Sukhdev Singh Babbar and then Bhai Sahib joined Babbar Khalsa as a chief. At Babbar Khalsa, Bhai Sahib carried actions out with Bhai Balwinder Singh Ganga Babbar, Bhai Gurmail Singh Raipur Babbar, Bhai Khem Sing Fauji, Bhai Bashir Mohammed alias Bhai Lachman Singh Babbar, Bhai Ghukar Singh Babbar, Bhai Angrej Singh Geja Babbar, Bhai Nihal Singh Barnala Babbar, Bhai Amrik Singh Biru Babbar, Bhai Tarsem Singh Karandhi Babbar, Bhai Amrik Singh Ankhi Babbar and many more singhs of Babbar Khalsa. Bhai Sahib had many encounters with the Indian security forces but Bhai Sahib always showed his bravery and managed to escape. Once with big bravery, Bhai Sahib stole an Enfield Bullet motorcycle and the weapons from a police officer and then escaped. From here onwards Bhai Sahib was given the name of Bullet. By using this name not many people knew which village Bhai Sahib was from, as normally Khadku Singh would use the name of their village as the surname.

Encounter of village Hodhla

Once Bhai Sahib, Bhai Ghukar Singh Babbar, Bhai Amrik Singh Biru Babbar, Bhai Angrej Singh Geja Babbar and Bhai Amrik Singh Ankhi Babbar had an encounter in the village of Hodhla. In this encounter 6-7 police officers were killed by the singhs. Bhai Sahib and group took all the weapons of the police officers and escaped. Further up the singhs stopped a mini bus and told all the passengers to get off the bus, after which the singhs boarded it. Bhai Amrik Singh Ankhi Babbar was driving while all the singhs sat in the back with the weapons and successfully got out of the area. After this action with the police of Hodhla, Bhai Sahib’s name was known all over India. Bhai Sahib’s bravery was much praised, his village was called small Talwandi and Hilly Talwandi but now locals called the village Bullet’s Talwandi.

Babbar Khalsa in Maujian

The Indian security forces had put reward on Bhai Sahib’s head. Bhai Sahib was also known to disguise himself and get out of police curfews. Whenever Bhai Sahib was surrounded by the police, he didn’t nervous and always remained calm. Once the CRP officers stopped Bhai Sahib and asked him the address of Bhai Balwinder Singh Bullet, as the CRP did not know what Bhai Balwinder Singh Bullet looked like. Bhai Sahib calmly guided the CRP away from his address and got himself out of the area. Once singhs of Babbar Khalsa were to have meeting in the village of Maujian, many top generals of the Babbar Khalsa had attended this meeting. Bhai Sahib, Bhai Balwinder Singh Ganga Babbar, Bhai Gurmail Singh Raipur Babbar, Bhai Khem Singh Fauji Babbar, Bhai Paramjit Singh Fullewala Babbar and another 15-20 singhs were present at this meeting. An informant and told the police of this meeting, soon the Indian security force surrounded the village and after a fierce encounter Bhai Sahib managed to escape.

Revenge of Raipur shaheeds

Then another encounter happened in the village of Raipur. In this long encounter against the Indian security forces, Bhai Sahib managed to escape unharmed but his close fellow singhs Bhai Gurmail Singh Raipur Babbar, Bhai Khem Singh Fauji Babbar and Bhai Paramjit Singh Fullewala attained shaheedi bravely fighting the thousands of Indian security forces and killing many of the Indian commandoes. Some days after the shaheedi of these three Sikh warriors of Babbar Khalsa, Bhai Sahib planned a revenge mission. On the road that goes from Dulowal to Maujian, Bhai Sahib planned a bomb and made bunkers beside the road, ready to attack the police as they came close. As soon as the police gypsies came close the singhs opened fire and killed many police officers. The police was shook with this surprise attack by the singhs and called the army for support. When the truck carrying the Indian army soldiers drove over the bomb, the bomb exploded and blew the truck and the soldiers into pieces. After avenging the shahadats of Bhai Gurmail Singh Raipur Babbar, Bhai Khem Singh Fauji Babbar and Bhai Paramjit Singh Fullewala, the singhs got out of the area shouting war cries. The rest of the Indian security forces were left scared to move towards the singhs and quietly waited for singhs to escape. Once again the singhs of Babbar Khalsa had install fear into the hearts of Indian soldiers.

After many actions of Bhai Sahib, the police started staying away from the village of Talwandi and the surrounding areas, in fear that Bhai Sahib might attack again. Even the government of Delhi was scared of the Malwa freedom fighter group of Bhai Balwinder Singh Ganga Babbar and Bhai Balwinder Singh Bullet Babbar. In Bhai Sahib’s group singh such as Bhai Ghukar Singh Babbar, Bhai Amrik Singh Biru Babbar, Bhai Tarsem Singh Karandhi Babbar, Bhai Angrej Singh Geja Babbar, Bhai Nihal Singh Barnala Babbar, Bhai Sukhpal Singh Pala Babbar, Bhai Makhan Singh Babbar and Bhai Sukhdev Singh Babbar. Bhai Bashir Mohammed alias Bhai Lachman Singh Babbar also was in Bhai Sahib’s group but later went out of Punjab to carry out actions on a national scale. Once the sister of Bhai Sahib was going to the gurudwara and on the way the police put her in the gypsy to ask her questions. The locals managed to free her from the police but when Bhai Sahib found about this dirty move of the police, Bhai Sahib did a full investigation into which police officer ordered this and once Bhai Sahib was sure, he killed that police officer. When Bhai Sahib killed this police officer, there were another 2-3 police officers but Bhai Sahib did not say anything and only punished the police officer that was in-charge of the harassment of his sister. Now the police sat quietly at the assigned police stations and whenever someone mentioned Bhai Sahib’s name, the police would look the other way. Bhai Sahib was one of the top soldiers of the Sikh armed struggle. Bhai Sahib had such a great heart, before punishing an enemy, Bhai Sahib would think over the plan thousands of times and still try to make the enemy understand and change his ways. If that didn’t work then Bhai Sahib would just kill the enemy with no regrets. Average citizens and Hindu community were not on Bhai Sahib’s hit list, in fact Bhai Sahib’s hit list was full of the political leaders, black cats and the police officers that killed the innocent Sikhs. Almost 6-7 years the family of Bhai Sahib were living in hiding to avoid the police harassment. The police had looted the belongings of Bhai Sahib’s family and wrecked all the family farms up as well as letting lose the cows and buffaloes.

Babbar Khalsa checkpoint

After some time Bhai Sahib and fellow singhs came to Talwandi village at night, to someone house. The family whose house the singhs stayed at said to Bhai Sahib, “You should leave the movement and remain low, the police will soon forget about you and stop harassing your family.” But Bhai Sahib replied, “I will not leave the battlefield, the battle has not finished. The Guru Ji has given me a sewa to do and now I will not look back. You do Ardas, ‘Hey Waheguru keep our Bullet in Chardikala and may he attain shaheedi on the battlefield.’” Bhai Sahib had repeated the history Bota Singh and Garja Singh. Bhai Sahib made a check point on the road between Boha and Akaanwali villages and started to stop every car. Bhai Sahib gave every car a note with the stamp of Babbar Khalsa, the note also stated, ‘the Khalsa rules Punjab now, so go tell the police’. The police was confused in who could be these singhs doing the job of the police. When the police came to the checkpoint to see the singhs, the singhs forcefully stopped the police and looted the police of their weapons. Some police officers fired bullets at the singhs, the singhs returned fire and instantly killed 3-4 police officers and after taking their weapons, the vacated the area by shouting war cries of, “Bole So Nihal Sat Sri Akaal.”

Shaheedi of Bhai Ghukar Singh Babbar

The whole Babbar Khalsa was so happy about this action of Bhai Sahib and his group. All the singhs respected Bhai Sahib as an army general. Some days after this action the encounter of Raipur took place, in which a close singh of Bhai Sahib, Bhai Ghukar Singh Babbar attained shaheedi. Bhai Ghukar Singh Babbar kept the Indian security forces and the Indian army at bay till his last breath while Bhai Sahib and another 4 singhs managed to escape. Most of his life, Bhai Sahib stayed in the Malwa area and carried out actions with some of the top Khadku Singhs of the Sikh Freedom Movement in Bhindranwale Tigers Force and Babbar Khalsa. Bhai Sahib punished many black cats, informants, evil police officers and kept the movement rolling. In the Malwa area, Bhai Sahib was like a prince with so much respect from the locals as well as Khadku Singhs. This was because Bhai Sahib supported the weak and the poor and also saved the honour of many Hindu sisters as well as Sikh sisters.

Inspector Dharam Singh

In Bhai Sahib’s are and inspector by the name of Dharam Singh had crossed the lines of cruelness. Dharam Singh had arrested two members of Bhai Ghukar Singh Babbar’s family, another two members of Bhai Amrik Singh Biru Babbar’s family and many more family members of other Khadku Singhs, but everyone Dharam Singh arrested never came back home, they were either killed in fake encounters or said to have escaped from the police station. To kill Dharam Singh Bhai Sahib and group laid bombs on the road which Dharam Singh passed regularly. When the police vehicles passed over the bomb, Bhai Sahib exploded the bomb which left the police and its vehicles in pieces. In this actions one singh was wounded, Bhai Rajpal Singh Ladoo Ramsar Babbar. Later Bhai Sahib and is group of singhs found out that Inspector Dharam Singh had survived, this made Bhai Sahib very upset. The singhs of Babbar Khalsa tried to finish Dharam Singh off again, but the lucky Dharam Singh escaped death again. Now Dharam Singh left the area feared for his life and also feared of Babbar Khalsa.

Revenge of Shaheed Bhai Angrej Singh Geja Babbar

As well as black cats infiltrating the movement, the informants would also walk around the villages and have the Khadku Singhs arrested. Through the information from an informant the police surrounded Bhai Angrej Singh Geja Babbar on 26th July 1992 in the village of Narinderpura, here Bhai Angrej Singh Geja Babbar attained shaheedi. On the day Bhai Angrej Singh Geja Babbar’s Sri Akhand Paath Bhog, Bhai Sahib and group killed all four informants and set the record straight. Bhai Sahib announced that anyone that has the Khadku Singhs killed will also face the same consequences as these four informants.

Remaining in Chardikala

Now the police started to up their security in the area and started killing the great generals of the Sikh Freedom Movement. When Bhai Balwinder Singh Ganga Babbar attained shaheedi, Bhai Sahib cried tears of pain. Even Bhai Sahib’s uncle’s son, Bhai Harwinder Singh Tahla Sahib was only 15 years old when the police took him from home, later the police said that Bhai Harwinder Singh Tahla Sahib had ran away from the police station. Till today no one knows what really happened to him. After all this events of sadness, Bhai Sahib remained in chardikala and kept strong within the Sikh Freedom Movement.

Babbar Khalsa in Haryana

Soon Bhai Sahib came to Haryana as the Punjab police were looking for Khadku Sighs like mad dogs. Bhai Tarsem Singh Karandhi Babbar, Bhai Nihal Singh Barnala Babbar, Bhai Amrik Singh Biru Babbar, and Bhai Sukhdeep Singh Chirian who was the son of a pundit and had taken the amrit of Guru Gobind Singh Ji, had all joined Bhai Sahib in Haryana. Bhai Sahib and group stayed in the village of Hisar for 2-3 days and after went Karandhi village. The police of Karandhi surrounded the singhs but thanks to the local Sikhs, Bhai Sahib and singhs managed to escape. The police of Haryana feared the Babbar Khalsa and were scared to move close to the singhs. The singhs would do actions in Haryana and quickly go into Punjab and at times they would do actions in Punjab and quickly go into Haryana. This left the Punjab police very confused.

The traitor Shera Singh and the Shahadat

On 28th March 1993, the singhs were resting at the house of Shera Singh, as the singhs had stayed here before. Some days before Bhai Sahib had given Shera Singh five lakh rupees and said, “The police is after us, when we need the money, the singhs will come and collect.” But soon as Shera Singh and his nephew Guddu saw the money the minds changed. Shera Singh spoke to the local sarpanch of Ghasna, the sarpanch told Shera Singh that if he helps the police capture the singhs of Babbar Khalsa, he will get the big cash rewards plus he will get to keep the 5 lakh rupees that Bhai Sahib had given him.

Some days after giving Shera Singh the money, the sings returned to Shera Singh’s house, it was in the month of March. Bhai Sahib and singhs decided to spend the day here at Shera Singh’s house and leave at nights. Bhai Sahib told Shera Singh to get a newspaper and some groceries for the family. Shera Singh agreed and left the singhs to rest at his house in a separate room. On the way out, Shera Singh told his family to slowly vacate the house slowly. In the afternoon, around about 1pm, Bhai Sahib came out of the room and saw no one in the house and noticed the police had surrounded the village. Punjab police and Haryana police were all here to capture the singhs of Babbar Khalsa. Bhai Sahib told fellow singhs not to be afraid or nervous and to do Ardas. After doing Ardas the singhs grabbed their weapons, the singhs let of loud Jaikaray of Bole So Nihal Sat Sri Akaal and fired bullets at the Indian security forces first and then challenged the Indian security forces to come close. The Indian security forces were using the bulletproof tractors and vehicles to get close to the singhs. The police announced the singhs to drop their weapons and to surrender. But the singhs fired bullets again to let the Indian security forces know that all the singhs want is a battle. Bhai Nihal Singh Barnala Babbar and Bhai Amrik Singh Biru Babbar told the singhs to escape while they stay behind and keep the Indian security forces busy, but Bhai Sahib said, “I’ve done Ardas t stay behind and fight till my last breath, you can go if you want, there are less officers towards the exit to Karandhi village, I’ll distract the police and you singhs escape from the Karandhi side.” Bhai Nihal Singh Barnala Babbar and Bhai Amrik Singh Biru Babbar managed to escape with the help of Bhai Sahib. Now Bhai Sahib, Bhai Tarsem Singh Karandhi Babbar and Bhai Sukhdeep Singh Chirian welcomed the police with bullets and started an encounter. The singhs started the encounter from Shera Singh’s house and moved the distance of 2 kilometres into the farms of Lanba Dhani.

The encounter started at half one in the afternoon. At 4.30pm Bhai Sukhdeep Singh Chirian attained shaheedi. Now Bhai Sahib and Bhai Tarsem Singh Karandhi Babbar continued the encounter, Indian security forces were losing bodies as well as the battle. Bhai Sahib was wearing a bullet proof jacket and became unstoppable. Bullets were being fired like it was world war three. The singhs were so happy, as it was a family wedding. To destroy the first bullet proof tractor, Bhai Sahib told Bhai Tarsem Singh Karandhi Babbar to climb up a Mulberry tree and fire bullets from there. Mulberry tree are full of leaves and provide a good cover. As Bhai Tarsem Singh Karandhi Babbar fired from the mulberry tree, Bhai Sahib laid down on the ground and fired bullets. As the first bullet proof tractor approached Bhai Sahib, Bhai Tarsem Singh Karandhi Babbar fired bullets from his ALR rifle into the heavy duty tyres of the tractor which stalled the tractor. Some police officers were killed and the ones that were alive stayed inside the tractor and played dead by staying quiet. When the second bullet proof tractor came on to the battlefield, Bhai Sahib slyly crawled under the tractor and stuck his assault rifle through the hole near the clutch system and burst all the bullets in the tractor, killing all police officers inside. Both singhs shouted Khalistan Zindabaad in happiness and in the success of their bravery. The singhs now started a full assault on the police, the singhs were killing the Indian soldiers and moving forward, while the Indian soldiers were dying and moving backwards. The Indian security forces cleared the escape route for the singhs, but the singhs were not going anywhere they were ready to attain shahadats and cause much havoc for the Indian government. After destroying the two bullet proof tractors, the Indian security forces started moving back and the singhs switched to their long range weapons and started taking the solders out this way. Bhai Sahib had received many bullets wounds on his legs but continued to fight like a true Sikh warrior. Soon Inspector Subha Singh came with 4-5 police officers, who were all drunk and used alcohol to drown their fear and bring out the stupidity. The drunken police officers jumped into a third bullet proof tractor and tried to take the singhs out. But once again Bhai Sahib got underneath the tractor and open a full burst of bullets, four police inspectors including Subha Singh were instantly killed, but the driver Satvir Singh was seriously wounded. Both singhs faught till their last breath in the 5 hour long intense encounter attained shaheedi.

All three singhs attained shaheedi in this fierce encounter, but the Indian forces sent by Shera Singh and his nephew, Guddu had lost many soldiers also and all their equipment was now fully destroyed. After the encounter the police took the bodies of three singhs, the family were not given the bodies. These singhs destroyed two bullet proof tractors and a bullet proof vehicle, which still are at the police station of Rattian as the proof of the bravery of Bhai Sahib and singhs. The family of Bhai Sahib were arrested and bought to the same police station where the bodies of the singhs were kept. The police were naming Bhai Tarsem Singh Karandhi Babbar’s body as Bhai Amrik Singh Biru Babbar. Police had told the press that they had killed Bhai Balwinder Singh Bullet Babbar, Bhai Amrik Singh Biru Babbar and Bhai Sukhdeep Singh Chirian Babbar in a big encounter, but Bhai Tarsem Singh Karandhi Babbar and Bhai Nihal Singh Barnala Babbar had escaped. When the family of Bhai Tarsem Singh Karandhi Babbar saw the bodies of their son, they straight away said, “That is not Bhai Amrik Singh Biru Babbar, that’s our son (Bhai Tarsem Singh Karandhi Babbar). The police could not believe this and called the police of Hisar to bring Bhai Ram Singh Karandhi to Fatehabad, who had also been arrested for a separate action, to identify Bhai Tarsem Singh Karandhi Babbar. When Bhai Ram Singh Karandhi entered the room where all the singhs were lying on the floor. It is said that Bhai Tarsem Singh Karandhi Babbar’s body was shot at after he had died and the body of Bhai Balwinder Singh Bullet Babbar had many bullet wounds in his legs, one bullet wound was in his neck and one in the head. The body of Bhai Sukhdeep Singh Chirian Babbar was completely full of bullet wounds. The police were swearing at the bodies of these shaheeds saying, “These terrorists have killed 35-40 of our men.” But an inspector by the name of Inder Singh Saini told the police officer to shut up as they were scared of the singhs when they were alive and now that they have died the police officers are swearing at them. On 29th March 1993, the bodies of Bhai Tarsem Singh Karandhi Babbar, Bhai Balwinder Singh Bullet and Bhai Sukhdeep Singh Chirian Babbar were taken to Hisar and cremated without any family members.

Tavareekh Babbar Khalsa – Karamjit Singh Sikhanwala