Shaheed Bhai Manjit Singh Dragabad

Babbar Khalsa

20th century Sikh, Sant Jarnail Singh Ji Bindranwale started the Sikh struggle to break the chains of slavery from the neck of Sikhs. In this struggle many Sikhs took part and gave their lives fighting the oppression. The government of Delhi was shook again and again, but Punjab did not run out of Sikhs who drank nectar of martyrdom. Within this huge list of glorious Sikh warriors is Shaheed Bhai Manjit Singh Dragabad.

Bhai Sahib’s family has always been into Sikhi and baptised. Bhai Sahib was born in the house of Sardar Arjan Singh and from the womb of Mata Jaswant Kaur on 12th December 1962 in Dargabad district Gurdaspur. Bhai Sahib had a younger brother, Bhai Kuldeep Singh. Bhai Sahib’s great grandfather, Sardar Bela Singh took part in Guru Ka Baagh Morcha, Jeto Ka Morcha, Gurudwara Sudhar Lehar and also spent 2 years in Multan Jail for protesting for the Sikh Rights. After India got its independence from the British, Sardar Bhela Singh use to say that the Sikhs have kicked the British out by giving their lives, but our so called Sikh leaders are hugging Nehru Gandhi so much that the Sikhs have now become the slaves of India.

As Punjab was being divided, the chains of British slavery were coming off and the chains of Indian slavery were being put on. On 2nd June 1947 a warrior of 20th century would be born in the area of Maja that would lead the Sikhs to fight for freedom, in the house of Sardar Joginder Singh and from the womb of Mata Nihal Kaur, Sant Jarnail Singh Ji Bindranwale would take birth and start the Sikh struggle. Sardar Bela Singh saw the birth of his great grandson on 12th December 1962 and named him Manjit. Bhai Sahib’s father had passed away, Bhai Sahib’s grandfather put him in the local school of Dragabad and later went to study at D.A.V College in Batala, here Bhai Sahib passed his FA exams. June 1983 Bhai Sahib regularly went to Sri Harimandir Sahib to do Darshan and also go to the lectures of Sant Jarnail Singh Ji Bindranwale, with Baba Ranjit Singh Dyalgarh and Bhai Gurmej Singh Dilwan. Sant Jarnail Singh Ji Bindranwale explained why Sikhs have been leaving in this fake freedom since 1947.

Sant Jarnail Singh Ji Bindranwale made it clear, that if one desires freedom them one has to be ready to die. Sikhs did not care about their lives and jumped into the battlefield to fight against the Indian security forces for the free state of Sikhs. Metal fought metal, if India fired a bullet towards the Sikhs, the Sikhs would then fir a bullet back.

Indira Gandhi tried to teach Sikhs a lesson for asking for freedom. The witch attacked Sri Harimandir Sahib, Sri Akaal Takht and 37 surrounding Gurudwaras, many Sikhs were paying their respects to Sri Darbar Sahib as it was Shaheedi Diwas of Guru Arjan Dev Ji. Innocent Sikhs were killed by the tanks and machine guns of Indian army. The Indian army went village to village arresting and killing baptised Sikhs. Then on 31st October 1985, 5 months after the Amritsar Massacre, Indira Gandhi was finally assassinated by Bhai Beant Singh and Bhai Satwant Singh in her own home. The Sikhs avenged the killing of innocent Sikhs by killing the accused. Rajiv Gandhi avenged his mother’s death by killing innocent Sikhs of Delhi and other major cities. This 2nd mass Sikh massacre forced Sikhs to pick up arms and start the armed struggle to gain freedom from Indian government, which treated Sikhs as second class citizens.

Bhai Sahib did sewa from the start but it was undercover. Bhai Sahib joined Babbar Khalsa along with Bhai Gurnam Singh Dabbanwal, Commander of Maja area and Bhai Sukhwinder Singh Dabbanwal. Bhai Sahib also punished many enemies with Bhai Sukhdev Singh Chaba and Bhai Gurinder Singh Ginda Dangowal. Bhai Sahib always recited Gurbani and did a great amount of simran. Whenever Bhai Sahib went on a mission, Bhai Sahib did ardas in front of Waheguru to make him kill innocent person and to surely punish the person who deserve it. Bhai Sahib was against the killings of innocent people, no matter what faith they belonged to, Hindus from Bhai Sahib’s area found themselves safe under Bhai Sahib’s command. Army, police and enemies of Sikhs were on the target list of Bhai Sahib. His name was well known by Khadku Singhs and Sikhs of Punjab. Khadku Singhs had started attacking Indian security forces with grenades and bomb, Bhai Gurinder Singh Ginda Dangowal was famous for such attacks. In Dargabad, BSF jeeps were blown apart, no one was killed and Bhai Sahib to full responsibility on newspapers. In Miankot a truck carrying police officers were blown up, all police officers were killed and the truck was in pieces. Bhai Sahib took full responsibility of blowing up BSF jeeps in the village of Dalay Chak. The killer of many Khadku Singh and also Bhai Mathra Singh was killed when a parcelled bomb was sent to training camp in Phillaur, Harcharan Singh and Ram Murti were instantly killed when the bomb detonated. 4 different freedom fighters groups took responsibility of this action. Bhai Sahib went to see his grandfather with Bhai Jaswant Singh Bijliwal. The CRP officers found out about this visit of Bhai Sahib. Bhai Sahib and Bhai Jaswant Singh Bijliwal were travelling on a motorbike, when the CRP officers thought the singhs were unarmed and asked them to stop or they will shoot. But Bhai Sahib and Bhai Jaswant Singh Bijliwal showed the grenades to 21 CRP officers and then started throwing them at the CRO. The officers started running for their lives towards the village of Dargabad. The villagers rushed to the roofs of their homes to witness 2 singhs shouting war cries and chasing 21 CRP officers. The truth of the encounter was printed in AAJ DI AWAAZ newspaper along with taking responsibility of the action by Bhai Dharam Singh of Babbar Khalsa. Soon after the police started searching Dargabad for Bhai Sahib and regularly harassed and tortured Bhai Sahib’s family. Nang Ajit Phoola released a statement asking Bhai Manjit Singh Dargabad to face Nang Ajit Phoola in an encounter. Bhai Sahib sent him a reply saying, that the singhs know that Phoola will run once he sees us, he will lay many traps for singhs to get caught but we will still come to prove a point, that Khadku Singhs are not afraid of death, so why would we be scared of Nang Ajit Phoola, if Phoola gives us a location then we will be there for an encounter. After this reply from the Khadku Singhs, Nang Ajit Phoola never replied to give a location.

17th September 1990, Bhai Sahib, Bhai Sukhdev Singh Chaba, Bhai Dharam Singh and Bhai Dalbir Singh Bira were going to attend a meeting at with Bhai Charat Singh and will travel from Kaseetpur to Dhadiala Nath at night. Bhai Dalbir Singh Bira left first to go to the meeting unarmed. DSP Ajaib Singh and Inspector Santa Singh knew that the singhs will be passing by soon, and in civil cloths they stood around on the road. Later Bhai Dalbir Singh Bira was passing by on a bicycle, when the police sae Bhai Dalbir Singh Bira the police pounced on him and shut his mouth so he couldn’t shout for help. The police decided to wait and see if more singhs come. Later Bhai Sahib, Bhai Sukhdev Singh Chaba and Bhai Dharam Singh also left unarmed to go to the meeting in Dhadiala Nath. The police saw the singhs approaching, when the singhs were in grabbing distance the police pounced on all 3 singhs and tried to wrestle them down to control. None of the singhs knew it was the police as they were in civil clothes, until Bhai Sukhdev Singh Chaba shouted it was the police. Bhai Sukhdev Singh Chaba and Bhai Dharam Singh managed to wrestle out of the grip of the police officers and made a run for it, but Bhai Sahib could not set himself free and swallowed the Sy-Nyde capsule. The police try to get Bhai Sahib to spit out the capsule but that did not work and Bhai Sahib attained shaheedi. Some police officers chased Bhai Sukhdev Singh Chaba and Bhai Dharam Singh with LMGs. Bhai Sukhdev Singh Chaba and Bhai Dharam Singh laid on the floor so the police officers could not see them in the dark. The police officers blind fired their LMGs and the bullets were flying over the heads of Bhai Sukhdev Singh Chaba and Bhai Dharam Singh. But the police officers could not find the 2 singhs and returned back to Bhai Dalbir Singh Bira. The officers asked Bhai Dalbir Singh Bira to identify the 3 singhs, but Bhai Dalbir Singh said he doesn’t know. As the police didn’t get any information from Bhai Dalbir Singh Bira, they shot him dead and Bhai Dalbir Singh Bira attained shaheedi.

The dead bodies of Bhai Sahib and Bhai Dalbir Singh Bira were taken to the Civil Hospital in Gurdaspur for post-mortem. The local Sikhs got together and asked the police for the bodies of the 2 singhs. But the police attacked the Sikhs with sticks and bars. Later the police took the bodies of Bhai Sahib and Bhai Dalbir Singh Bira to the local cemetery the same night and cremated them. The Khadku Singhs got the ashes of the 2 singhs and gave them to the families.

Khadku Yodhe – Maninder Singh Baja