Shaheed Bhai Harjinder Singh Jinda Aadowali

Khalistan Commando Force

In the very long list of shaheeds that fought against the Indian security forces for the freedom of Sikhs is the name of Shaheed Bhai Harjinder Singh Aadowali. Bhai Sahib was born on 2nd March 1969from the womb of Mata Joginder Kaur and in the house of Sardar Amarjit Singh in the village of Aadowali which is near Mehta, district Gurdaspur. Bhai Sahib had three brothers Bhai Palwinder Singh, Bhai Surinder Singh and Bhai Parminder Singh, Bhai Sahib was the second eldest.

Bhai Sahib studied at the local school of Aadowali up until 5th class and after completed his education up till 12th class at senior secondary school of Mehta Nangal. While studying here Bhai Sahib joined Sikh Student Federation and came in contact with many Khadku Singhs. Bhai Sahib was very close to Bhai Sukhdev Singh Sakheera, Bhai Sahib also stayed with Bhai Sukhdev Singh Sakheera for some time at Sri Darbar Sahib. On 29th April 1986, when the Panthic Committee declared the need of Khalistan, Bhai Sahib got out of the complex before the Punjab police started arresting Sikhs.

Shortly after this event, Bhai Sukhdev Singh Sakheera attained shaheedi. Then Bhai Sahib came in contact with Bhai Sukhwinder Singh Pappu Gora, Bhai Jagtar Singh Jagga and Bhai Joga Singh Khanpur, from here onwards Bhai Sahib started secretly doing sewa within the Sikh Freedom Movement. Bhai Sahib was given the sewa of getting weapons and transporting them to the Khadku Singhs.

While doing this sewa, an informant gave the information to the police and Bhai Sahib was arrested from the village of Manaanwala. Bhai Sahib was taken to Amritsar’s engineering cell, where he was blindly tortured, but Bhai Sahib leaked no information on his fellow singhs. The police then charged Bhai Sahib with weapons case and sent him to Jodhpur jail.

For about 6 months, Bhai Sahib stayed in jail and was after bailed, but even then the police started harassing Bhai Sahib. Bhai Sahib once again started doing sewa within the Sikh Freedom Movement. When the family of Bhai Joga Singh Khanpur was killed including his children by Ajit Phoola, then Bhai Joga Singh Khanpur felt the need of a sniper rifle to avenge the death of his family. Then Bhai Sahib managed to get Bhai Joga Singh Khanpur a telescopic sniper rifle, even though Bhai Joga Singh Khanpur did not get a chance to avenge his family’s death.

As well as transporting weapons to Khadku Singhs, Bhai Sahib was also showing the world his actions on the battlefield. Bhai Sahib was one of the singhs along with Bhai Jaspal Singh Babbu and Bhai Gurnam Singh Jang Nangli avenged the killing of Sikh students in the Bidar area.

The respect Bhai Sukhwinder Singh Pappu Gora had for Bhai Sahib can be measured, when Bhai Sukhwinder Pappu Gora was in his last encounter gave his pistol to a fellow singhs and told them to also to give him the message to Bhai Sahib to elect the next Jathedar of their group. Bhai Sahib had selected Bhai Daljit Singh Bhau Rangeenpura to lead their group.

In March 1992, many fellow singhs from Bhai Sahib’s group were arrested by the Punjab police. One of the singhs could not take the torture and gave all of the information to the police and mentioned Bhai Sahib’s name. On 1st April 1992, the Batala police arrested Bhai Sahib. SSP Sita Ram blindly Bhai Sahib and another two singhs with transporting explosives case on 7th April 1992.

When the news of Bhai Sahib’s arrest was printed in the newspapers, the black cat Keval came and met SSP Sita Ram. Keval advised SSP Sita Ram not to let Bhai Sahib be freed alive. The truth is once the black cat Keval managed to gain the trust of the singhs from Taksal and joined the group of Bhai Sukhwinder Singh Pappu Gora and when he got the chance he stole many weapons of the group and ran away. At that time Bhai Sahib warned Keval to return the weapons back to the group, from here Keval knew what Bhai Sahib was like and was also afraid of Bhai Sahib.

After the SSP Sita Ram heard everything from Keval, SSP Sita Ram made a plan of killing Bhai Sahib in a fake encounter. The Punjab police made up a fake encounter and killed Bhai Sahib, the following day the newspapers read that Bhai Sahib was killed when his fellow singhs tried to break him out. Soon as the family of Bhai Sahib got this news they rushed to the police station, where the police told them, “You son’s cremation is happening at the crematory.”

The family of Shaheed Bhai Harjinder Singh Jinda Aadowali and locals quickly made their way to the crematory. The person in-charge there did not give any information to the family in the start, but when some money was given to him, he took the family to the place where Bhai Sahib was being cremated. The family saw that Bhai Sahib’s body was thrown face down on to burning tyres and only the arms had burnt so far. The family then got some wood and properly cremated Bhai Sahib. The worker at the crematory said, “We have lost the number of bodies that the police have burnt like this. They burn the bodies on the tyres and after they throw the half burnt bodies in the river.”

Shaheed Bhai Harjinder Singh Jinda Aadowali was a great warrior of the Sikh Freedom Movement and was doing many big actions, for this reason the Punjab police could not let this warrior be freed and staged the fake encounter of Bhai Sahib.

Khalsa Fatehnama – March 2010 – Baljit Singh Khalsa