Shaheed Bhai Joga Singh Bishnandi

Babbar Khalsa

 

Bhai Joga Singh Bishnandi was born in the house of Sardar Gurdev Singh and from the womb of Mata Pritam Kaur in the early years of 1970’s. Sardar Gurdev Singh was close to the Jathedars of Dam Dami Taksal and did sewa at the Taksal. For this reason, when the 1978 Sikh massacre happened Bhai Sahib joined the Jatha of Sant Jarnail Singh Ji Bindranwale.

Bhai Sahib was only 20 years old when Bhai Joginder Singh Babbar engaged him to Bibi Gurbinder Kaur, daughter of Sardar Harbans Singh, who was from the same village as Bhai Joginder Singh Babbar. Bhai Sahib was married to Bibi Gurbinder Kaur in 1984, shortly after the wedding the government of India Sri Harimandir Sahib. At that time Bhai Sahib was inside the complex, with the blessings of Waheguru and the guidance of Sant Jarnail Singh Ji Bindranwale, Bhai Sahib and his father, Sardar Gurdev Singh fought with weak weaponry from their bunker and forced the Indian army to pull back. But when the Indian army failed in all their man power, they sent in the tanks to destroy everything that stood on the complex. The old weaponry of the singhs was no match against the tanks. As the tanks came in on to the Parikarma, many singhs including Bhai Sahib escaped the complex from behind the Sri Akaal Takht Sahib, but many more singhs including Sardar Gurdev Singh stayed behind with Sant Jarnail Singh Ji Bindranwale to drink the nectar of martyrdom.

 

The family found out that Bhai Sahib was alive 3 months after the attack on Sri Harimandir Sahib. The wife of Bhai Sahib, Bibi Gurbinder Kaur also joined her husband in the 20th century Sikh Freedom Movement. Bhai Sahib along with Bhai Tarsem Singh Kohar, Bhai Makhan Singh Shithh, Baba Ranjit Singh Dyalgarh, Bhai Roshan Lal Beraagi and Bhai Dalbir Singh Billa started doing panthic sewa together.

 

Once Bhai Sahib was arrested from Mukhatsar, the police charged Bhai Sahib with many fake cases and locked him up in Faridkot jail, then to Amritsar jail and finally to Gurdaspur jail. At Gurdaspur jail Bhai Sahib planned to break out with Baba Ranjit Singh Dyalgarh and other singhs. At a court hearing of Bhai Sahib, the family gave him fresh cloths, household toiletries and groceries but in fact all this stuff had weapons hidden within them. With these weapons Bhai Sahib, Baba Ranjit Singh Dyalgarh, Bhai Dalbir Singh Billa, Bhai Jaswinder Singh Kaka, Bhai Roshan Lal Beraagi managed to break out of Gurdaspur jail.

 

After this jail break Bhai Sahib stayed undercover and with the singhs, jumped into the Battlefield again and did panthic sewa. 5 months later Bhai Sahib had a huge encounter against the Indian security forces in the village of Sarwali, district Kolanor. In this encounter Sikh youth from village Akhara named Kaka and Bhai Jaspal Singh attained shaheedi but Bhai Sahib and Bhai Khazan Singh Laduwal were wounded and arrested. Both singhs were taken to the Dhariwal police station and were blindly tortured, after 2-3 months of torture at different police stations, Bhai Sahib was sent to Gurdaspur jail, but Gurdaspur jail denied Bhai Sahib a cell and then Bhai Sahib was sent to Sangrur jail. Bhai Sahib stayed here for some months then was moved to Nabha jail.

 

While in jail, Bibi Gurbinder Kaur on the outside carried on with panthic sewa. In 1985 Singhni of Bhai Sahib was staying at Sri Darbar Sahib with Bibi Bimal Kaur. A youth of Shromani Committee Task Force was killed, Bibi Gurbinder Kaur was wanted by the police for this murder. Bhai Sahib was in jail when the police raided the house the president of Sikh Student Federation, Girl Unit of Kaddian, here Bibi Gurbinder Kaur and many more singhnia were arrested. It was a normal thing for members of the Sikh Student Federation to be arrested. After some days Bibi Gurbinder Kaur and the singhnia were released, but the police later found out that they had arrested Bibi Gurbinder Kaur in a different disguise. The police straight after put out checkpoints in search of Bibi Gurbinder Kaur.

 

Bibi Gurbinder Kaur was later captured along with Bhai Harjinder Singh Jinda Arjanpur and another singh. The three were taken to the police station of Kaddian. The police did not know who one of the singhs was, Bhai Harjinder Singh Jinda Arjanpur took the advantage of this misjudgement of the police and made a runner from the police station. After this the wireless sets of the police would not stop ringing, every police checkpoint in Kaddian knew to look out for 2 singhs. The police soon arrested the singhs after a lengthy chase and were taken back to the police station of Kaddian. Big officers came to Kaddian to see who these singhs were, these officers included DGP Julio Francis Rebeiro and IG of border army. For 22 days all 3 freedom fighters were mercilessly tortured and later Bibi Gurbinder Kaur was charged with many cases of which most were fake and jailed in Sangrur jail.

 

After 8 months Bibi Gurbinder Kaur was bailed out by the family but as she walked out of the jail, the police arrested her again and taken to police station of Faridkot. Here Gobind Ram was known raping Sikh women and killing innocent Sikhs. Gobind Ram threatened Bibi Gurbinder Kaur to go on TV and talk against the Sikh Freedom Movement, but she clearly said, “No.” Gobind Ram then tortured her daily, the Sikh panchayat would try to have her released but the police always transferred her to another police station. The Sikh panchayat got angry of being unfairly treated, many protests took place to put pressure on the police to release Bibi Gurbinder Kaur and this had worked, the police was forced to release Bibi Gurbinder Kaur.

 

22ndAugust 1990 student of the last year of school, Bibi Manjit Kaur who was also the sister of Bibi Gurbinder Kaur was killed at her home by the police. Bhai Sahib had been in jail for 4 years and was finally bailed, but the police was planning on arresting Bhai Sahib again as he came out of the jail gates, but luckily enough on the same day of Bhai Sahib’s release was the releasing of Jathedar Gurdev Singh Kaunke. Bhai Sahib came out with Jathedar Gurdev Singh Kaunke and the police could not get close to Bhai Sahib as 100s of Sikh sangat was outside the jail to greet Jathedar Gurdev Singh Kaunke. Bhai Sahib managed to reach home but the police was still hunting for Bhai Sahib. After staying at home for 15 days, Bhai Sahib jumped back into the battlefield as a Khadku Singh and punished many enemies of the Sikh nation.

 

On 7thNovember 1990 Bhai Sahib had an intense encounter Batala with the Indian security forces and attained shaheedi.

 

Purja Purja Kat Maray – Baljit Singh Khalsa