Shaheed Bhai Jasvir Singh Bhola

Babbar Khalsa

The village of Mal is near Bajkhana, where two families of shaheeds live. One family is of Bhai Baljit Singh Billi Bakrian Wala and other of Bhai Jasvir Singh Bhola Babbar. Everything and anything that belonged to Bhai Baljit Singh Billi Bakrian Wala has been destroyed from the village but Bhai Jasvir Singh Bhola Babbar’s family are still fighting the struggle and living in the village.

Bhai Jasvir Singh Bhola Babbar was born in the house of Sardar Hakam Singh and from the womb of Mata Dalip Kaur in the village of Mal. Bhai Sahib was married to Bibi Gurmeet Kaur  and even she faced brutal torture of the Punjab police at the Jeto police station. Bhai Sahib had been married a few days when the police arrested both husband and wife to be brutally tortured. Bibi Gurmeet Kaur gave birth to two sons and one daughter. From childhood Bhai Sahib was attached to the values of Sikhism and even today the family of Bhai Sahib is ready to sacrifice itself for the Sikh faith. Bhai Sahib’s grandfather, Sardar Jeet Singh had taken part in the Jeto Ka Morcha, Bhai Sahib’s father, Sardar Hakam Singh took part in the 1982 Dharam Yudh Morcha at Kapur river, where he gave his arrest along with other singhs. Bhai Sahib’s father had been brutally tortured and due to this his body was not fully workable. When Sardar Hakam Singh was released he started being ill and passed away, this was all because of the ill treatment of Sikhs by the Indian government. The family has always held Akali Dal responsible for the betrayal to the Sikh nation. Mata Dalip Kaur upset and told us, “Our family has spent time in jail for the Sikh faith, my lovely son has attained shaheedi for the Sikh faith and the Sikhs have forgotten all about us. After his (Bhai Sahib) shaheedi, the commandoes made our house their army base. They kicked us out of our own house, where were the Akalis then?” The police did not allow the family to have a Sri Akhand Paath Sahib for Bhai Sahib’s last ardas at family house, the family are waiting till today to hold the final ardas of Bhai Sahib.

Bhai Sahib worked as driver in the Mansa area and within the drivers’ union, Bhai Sahib had haters. These haters would say, “Be careful of that quiet Sardar, he is very dangerous.” Bhai Sahib would laugh at such comments by his haters and carry on with his work. Bhai Sahib secretly kept in contact with the singhs involved in the Sikh Freedom Movement. The police were informed of Bhai Sahib’s links with the singhs of Babbar Khalsa and as soon as Bhai Sahib found out that the police was after him, Bhai Sahib left home and his work to join Bhai Gurmail Singh Secretary Babbar and Bhai Balwinder Singh Ganga Babbar. Bhai Sahib had now started carrying out actions to punish the anti-Sikh elements.

Bhai Sahib was given the command of Halka, district Mansa by the singhs of Babbar Khalsa. Bhai Sahib had ordered the singhs of his group not to get involved into personal vendetta, no matter how big the enemies he or she is of his family. The police of Jeto, Mansa and Morh Mandi arrested every member of Bhai Sahib’s family and locked them up. The police would put a blind fold on the family members and take them out of the police station to beat them up and later bring them back all beaten and bruised up. No food or water was given to the family and in the winter the police would take their clothes of and leave them in the ice old cell. The family had enough and told the police to kill them instead of torturing them daily. Bhai Sahib’s brother, Bhai Sukhchain Singh was very upset and still till today misses his brother, he told us, “I met Bhola in 1989 and that was the last time I met him. I never saw his face again, until the police took me to identify his dead body. When we asked for his body the police got aggressive with us and said, ‘Fools, what are you going to do with his (Bhai Sahib) body, he has killed many of our soldiers and officers.”

2nd January 1993, Bhai Sahib, Bhai Bashir Mohammed alias Bhai Lachman Singh Babbar and Bhai Gurmail Singh Secretary Babbar had attacked a police station in Haryana and freed one of the fellow singhs. As these singhs of Babbar Khalsa blew up the police station, the Haryana police were majorly weakened with this attack of the Babbars. As soon as the singhs entered Punjab, the local police tracked the singhs and a chase started. Soon the Punjab police managed to surround the singhs in the village of Peroh, where an encounter started but Bhai Sahib tripped over and broke a bone in his leg and wasn’t able to escape. Bhai Sahib told the singhs to escape while he kept the police at bay. For 8 hours Bhai Sahib, himself continued to battle against the thousands of Indian security forces commandoes. The fellow singhs did not want to leave Bhai Sahib behind but Bhai Sahib had forced them to escape. The singhs managed to escape thanks to the bravery and the sacrifice of Bhai Sahib. In the end Bhai Sahib took hundreds of bullets from the machine guns of the Indian armed forces and attained shaheedi. The police was shocked to find out that how one singh of the Babbar Khalsa had killed 17 officers, who were fully trained and had better weapons. It is also said, the Indian security forces were so scared that it took many hours after the encounter had finished, for the Indian forces to even think about going near Bhai Sahib’s shaheedi saroop.

Fellow singhs of the Babbar Khalsa held a Sri Akhand Paath Sahib on a Saturday, the 8th January 1993 at secret location, but the family has not yet done the final Ardas of Bhai Sahib as the Punjab police still harass the family. In the newspaper, Aaj Di Awaaz of 8th January 1993, Bhai Lachman Singh alias Bashir Mohammed made a humble request to the Sikh nation to honour Shaheed Bhai Jasvir Singh Bhola, Shaheed Bhai Sukhpal Singh Pala and Shaheed Hari Singh Kaler by doing prayers of Sri Choupai Sahib.

Tavareekh Babbar Khalsa – Karamjit Singh Sikhanwala