Shaheed Bhai Jagtar Singh Dhola 

Khalistan Commando Force

Bhai Jagtar Singh Dhola was born in the house of Sardar Mohan Singh and from the womb of Mata Gurnam Kaur in the village of Rasulpur near Khemkaran. Bhai Sahib was from a Gursikh farming family. Bhai Sahib was the 7th eldest son of 5 brothers and 4 sisters another brother of Bhai Sahib, Bhai Jageer Singh Mal is also a shaheed of the Sikh Freedom Movement. Bhai Sahib and Bhai Jagir Singh Mal had studied very little and had started to help their father in the farms from a young age. Bhai Sahib was bought up in a loving, caring and a protective family who were also deeply attached to the values of Sikhi. Bhai Sahib’s family had a good business, 35-40 buffaloes in the dairy, a lot of land and also the family owned a truck but this was not long lived as after the shaheedi of these two brothers everything was destroyed by the cruel Indian government. Bhai Sahib’s village was in the Mand area and resided off the end of Beas-Satluj River, the Pakistan border was only a kilometre away from Bhai Sahib’s village. The Mand area was the base of many Jhujaru Singh, nearly every Jathebandi had been here, Jathedar Avtar Singh Bramha, General of Khalistan Liberation Force also known as the King of Mand after defeating the Julio Francis Reberio’s helicopters and armed team.

Sardar Mohan Singh’s family was from the village of Bhandala near Makhu which is roughly 6 kilometres away from Bhai Sahib’s village after crossing the river. From childhood Bhai Sahib visited this village of his grandparents regularly. Bhai Gurnam Singh Bhandala was also from this village and was part of Sant Jarnail Singh Ji Khalsa Bhindranwale’s Jatha and later went on to be part of Panthic Committee in 1986, Bhai Sahib had great amount of love for Bhai Gurnam Singh Bhandala. Bhai Sahib would regularly travel to Sri Harimandir Sahib with Bhai Gurnam Singh Bhandala and do sangat with Sant Jarnail Singh Ji Khalsa Bhindranwale during the Dharam Yudh Morcha. Bhai Sahib was influenced by Sant Jarnail Singh Ji Khalsa Bhindranwale and took Amrit from the Panj Pyare.

In June 1984, the Indian army attacked Sri Harimandir Sahib with tanks and cannons under the orders of the Indira Gandhi. In this attack, an additional 37 historical Gurughars around Amritsar were also attacked and just like at Sri Harimandir Sahib thousands of innocent Sikh Pilgrims were also massacred by the Indian army. As well as loss of lives, the Sri Akaal Takht Sahib, the Sikh history library were also demolished and burnt. At the time of the attack Bhai Sahib was very young, it was after this act of the Hindu racist government that the Sikh armed struggle started. In the armed struggle, Bhai Sahib’s area Mand played an important part, by 1986 Mand was the location for training and it was giving birth to fearless Jhujaru Singhs who would defend the Sikh Panth. Due to Bhai Sahib knowing the routes of this Border area, the Jhujaru Singhs always used Bhai Sahib’s intelligence and experience to make crossings.

Bhai Sahib had now started spending time with the Jhujaru Singhs at his young age. Bhai Sahib’s older brother, Bhai Jagir Singh Mal who was a tall and strong man had already joined the Jhujaru Singhs and had been carrying out actions under Khalistan Commando Force. Bhai Jagir Singh Mal would help singhs cross into Pakistan and also provide langar for the Jhujaru Singhs. Almost every freedom fighting group would come and go to through Bhai Sahib’s area, Khalistan Commando Force was one of them. Bhai Gurnam Singh Bhandala of Khalistan Commando Force knew Bhai Sahib’s family very well. Bhai Sahib and his older brother, Bhai Jagir Singh Mal had started doing sewa with this Jathebandi. In 1988 Bhai Jagir Singh Mal attained shaheedi, along with Bhai Surinder Singh of Sursingh, in a 12 hour fierce encounter with Indian security forces in the village of Punia.

After the Shaheedi of his elder brother, Bhai Sahib now fully got involved in the Sikh Freedom Movement. Almost every member of Bhai Sahib’s household did sewa of Jhujaru Singhs. Whenever and Jhujaru Singh of any group came to the house, Mata Gurbachan Kaur happily did their sewa. As well as doing sewa of singhs from Khalistan Commando Force, Bhai Sahib’s family also did sewa of Jhujaru Singhs from other groups too. Bhai Sahib was doing sewa under the command of Bhai Bakshish Singh Soni Cairo and had punished many Anti-Sikh elements. Bhai Sahib would find the enemies of Sikhs no matter where they tried to hide and send them to hell on single ticket. Bhai Sahib’s base in these days was in the village Ruknewala Mand in the Makhu area, and the Indian security forces were so scared of BS’s reputation they would not step into this area. Jhujaru Singhs of all Jathebandis had great amount of respect of BS due to his immense service to the Sikh Freedom Movement, any missions to do with crossing border into Pakistan went through Bhai Sahib. The Indian government had a big cash reward of Bhai Singh’s head. The Jatha of Bhai Sahib had fearless and brave warriors like Bhai Nishan Singh Makhu, Bhai Gurnam Singh Ghariyala, Bhai Bakshish Singh Nawa Pind Algon, Bhai Gurnam Singh Mughal Bhandala, Bhai Nirmal Singh Bhandala, Bhai Hakam Singh Dasual, Bhai Kulwant Singh Khatta Alsan, Bhai Kuldeep Singh, Bhai Pargat Singh Kamele Bodla, Bhai Nirvair Singh Deep Singh Wala and many others. After Bhai Bakshish Singh Soni Cairo attained shaheedi along with his singhni, Bhai Sahib was made the general of his group. Under Bhai Sahib’s command, this strong team of Jhujaru Singhs did many actions that shook the Indian government and due to this they put a reward of 10 lakh rupees on Bhai Sahib’s hand. During this time Bhai Sahib’s family also suffered from blind torture and daily harassment by the local police.

In the month of February 1991, Bhai Sahib had been surrounded in his village of Rasulpur as he visited due to panthic sewa. By this time many of Bhai Sahib’s close singhs had already attained shaheedi. When Bhai Sahib found out he had been surrounded, he decided to fight the Indian security forces and attempt to escape. As Bhai Sahib started the encounter he ran trying to escape and managed to reach the village of Bhangala, it was here Bhai Sahib found himself outnumbered by thousands of soldiers. This brave soldier of Khalistan attained Shaheedi fighting the Indian security forces. After Bhai Sahib’s Shaheedi, his body was not given to the family and Punjab police cremated Bhai Sahib at a cremation ground in Patti.

Information from family of Shaheed Bhai Jagtar Singh Dhola