Shaheed Bhai Mohinder Singh Pappi

Khalistan Zindabaad Force/ Bhindranwala Tigers Force of Khalistan

If one is forced to pick up weapons that can mean only one thing that the person was either denied justice or now to get their justice they have picked up weapons. To prove this point we decided to write and translate the jeevan of Shaheed Bhai Mohinder Singh Pappi.

Bhai Mohinder Singh Pappi was born in the house of Sardar Bhajan Singh and from the womb of Mata Agaya Kaur in Sinbal Camp of Jammu, Bhai Sahib also grew up here. The story of Bhai Sahib started when a racist Hindu named Fateh Sharma, a brick factory owner came in Bhai Sahib’s life for the first time. Bhai Sahib was in the process of building their family house and had come to the brick factory to purchase more bricks. Fateh Sharma would sell bricks to Sikhs at an extortion rate and give his Hindu customers a discounted price. Bhai Sahib knew about this scandal and told Fateh Sharma to charge the same price he charges his Hindu customers. Sharma said no and started arguing with Bhai Sahib, later he went to the local Hindu Thanedar of the area and put in fake FIRs against Bhai Sahib. The Thanedar then arrested Bhai Sahib on false accusations, after immense torture Bhai Sahib was humiliated by having his face painted black and dragged around the streets of Mira Sahib area by the Thanedar. It was here the sounds of Hindus laughing and clapping made Bhai Sahib make some important decisions that would decide his future.

After being humiliated Bhai Sahib was taken to the police station, where he challenged SHO Isher Das Dutta, “I don’t want to live after this humiliation, it would better if you kill me or I will surely send you to hell.” A file of fake cases was prepared against Bhai Sahib and then Bhai Sahib was sent to Central Jammu Jail for a year under the PSA act. Bhai Sahib made contact with singhs in the jail, he was bailed out early after the family had paid a big sum of money. Soon as Bhai Sahib came home he could not sleep and immediately started searching for SHO Isher Das Dutta.

In the end Bhai Sahib received the information on the SHO, he along with a school friend, Bhai Ranjit Singh Bubbly and 2 singhs he met in the jail, Bhai Sawaran Singh and Bhai Darshan Singh Sindhi caught up with the SHO and were now standing in front of the evil racist Hindu SHO. The singhs had beaten him up so bad that he was paralysed, death was not to be the SHO’s punishment as every day the SHO spent in his bed not being able to move after the beating, he had wished for death. This action of the average Sikh youth in Jammu made Bhai Sahib the Robin Hood of the area. The public that had been harassed by butchers like Isher Das Dutta glorified Bhai Sahib but at the same time some labelled Bhai Sahib as a terrorist.

This was in 1985, the singhs were soon caught and sent to jail. In jail Bhai Sahib met many Khadku Singhs and he also met Bhai Avtar Singh of Sikh Student Federation. The brave soul within Bhai Sahib started to turn in the right direction, the seed of freedom had been planted in Bhai Sahib. After being released Bhai Sahib took up arms and joined the Khalistan Zindabaad Force to fight against the oppression of the Indian government. After that day any bullet fired in Jammu was blamed on Bhai Sahib by the Indian security forces. Before Bhai Sahib closed all his routes of return to a family life, the new SSP of Jammu, PS Gill spoke to Bhai Sahib’s brother, Bhai Raja Singh who was a sarpanch to get Bhai Sahib to give up arms and hand himself to the police. The family managed to persuade Bhai Sahib, after which Bhai Sahib was sent to jail once again. When Bhai Sahib was released, he was continuously harassed by the police, even the family had enough of this foul treatment. The family approached SSP PS Gill, but even he could not help as his hands were tied.

Sikhs killed and injured in Jammu, January 13th 1989

The Sikhs of Jammu arranged for a procession Nagar Kirtan to commemorate the Advent Day of Guru Gobind Singh. With some Sikhs carrying portraits of Sardar Satwant Singh one of the Bodyguards who shot and killed The Indian Prime Minister and Kehar Singh the uncle of Beant Singh the other Bodyguard who was involved in the killing, the procession was suddenly attacked with deadly weapons by a Hindu mob connected with the organisation Shiv Sena. 13 Sikhs were killed and about 100 wounded, some of them seriously. Several Gurdwaras were looted and set on fire that day. Sikh owned properties worth crores were burnt and destroyed. No one was ever arrested or punished for the killings even though the police were witness to the attack and murders.

On 13th January 1989, on the gurpurab of the 10th Guru, Guru Gobind Singh Ji a Nagar Kirtan was attacked by Hindu extremists such as Congress, Shiv Sena, RSS and other Hindu yobs in which 13 Sikhs were killed and many wounded. This had made Bhai Sahib take an oath to become a Khadku Singh. Bhai Sahib started to clean Jammu of extremist Hindu yobs, who had played a role in the massacre of Sikhs on 13th January. Bhai Sahib first punished Badmaash Bawa, Raju Kabutarbaz, Gudu Congressi and many more were sent to hell by the hands of Bhai Sahib. The dead bodies of informants were hung on trees which sent shivers to the Indian security forces. All the actions of Khalistan Zindabad Force were blamed on Bhai Sahib.

The Khadku Singhs of Jammu had established good links with the Khadku Singhs of Punjab. Bhai Sahib became very close to Baba Gurbachan Singh Manochahal of Bhindranwala Tigers Force of Khalistan through Bhai Gurdeep Singh Nepali and Bhai Avtar Singh Khalsa. During this time, the butcher DSP Makhan of Punjab came to Jammu’s Sinbal Camp and gathered the public at a local school. The DSP said, “I have broken the back bone of the Sikh Freedom Movement in Punjab, what can the Sikh Freedom Movement of Jammu achieve? I’ll demolish any rise of Sikh freedom here in Jammu in no time.” Some days after this an assassination attempt was made on DSP Makhan at his residence by the Khadku Singhs of Jammu. Now the Indian security forces knew that the Khadkus of Jammu mountains and Rajasthan jungles are equally as dangerous as the Khadku Singhs of Punjab.

Bhai Sahib was now wanted for 150 murder cases, police forces from Punjab, Rajasthan, Jammu, Kashmir and Bombay were hunting Bhai Sahib like mad dogs. To make the movement stronger in Jammu Kashmir, Bhai Sahib started recruiting more singhs, but this did not go down well with Bhai Ranjit Singh Nitta. Singhs from Sinbal Camp, Gurdaspur, Butala, Mukaria and Pathankot joined Bhai Sahib to strengthen the movement in northern India. There may have been two fighting groups in Jammu Kashmir but they never had a dispute amongst themselves. Khadku Singhs had bases in Sinbal Camp, Gaddi Garh and Dagiana, the police would think many times before entering these areas and if they did, they would enter with the backup of the Indian army. The unlimited recruitment of singhs opened the doors of Sikh Freedom Movement to the black cats and informants. These were the elements that discredited the movement in Jammu, the public was losing respect for the true Khadku Singhs.

For a short span of time Baba Gurbachan Singh Manochahal made Bhai Sahib the area commander Bhindranwala Tigers Force of Khalistan in Tarn Taran. Bhai Sahib never lost any credit, the public in Jammu knew about Bhai Sahib’s battle to wipe out drugs in Jammu and always helping needy. Families would hide Bhai Sahib in their homes to save Bhai Sahib in encounters. A black cat by the name of Bittu Pathankotia had joined Bhai Sahib’s group. It was this black cat that informed the police that Bhai Sahib had an appendix operation and was resting with his family in Khanna, Punjab. Bittu had unarmed Bhai Sahib himself. The police surrounded the house in which Bhai Sahib was staying and arrested him. In the torture centre, Bhai Sahib was stabbed with red hot rods and electrocuted. When the police could not get any information from Bhai Sahib they tied his legs to jeeps and made Bhai Sahib shaheed by ripping him apart.

From 29th May 1993 to 10th June 1993, newspapers reported that a Khadku Singh who was active from Jammu to Maharashtra, Bhai Mohinder Singh Pappi has been arrested. Hindu extremists Jammu had paid big sums of money to Punjab police to kill Bhai Sahib before he was transferred to Jammu police. The informants and traitors now felt safe as Bhai Sahib was in police custody, these informants and traitors were the same people that would have themselves locked up in police stations when Bhai Sahib roamed the streets of Jammu. All the anti-Sikh elements were celebrating the arrest of Bhai Sahib. Bhai Sahib had attained shaheedi in Khanna’s torture centre, the police had given the photos of Bhai Sahib’s shaheedi saroop to the extreme Hindus who then showed these photos to Sikhs and laughed at Bhai Sahib.

The family till today don’t know what happened to Bhai Sahib’s wife and children who were with him when Bhai Sahib was arrested. Did the police kill them? Why did they kill them? To top this injustice on Bhai Sahib’s family on 19th July 1996, Bhai Sahib’s younger brother Bhai Kulbir Singh was arrested from Srinagar and then killed in a fake encounter. Where is the justice from the country that calls itself a country of democracy?

Khalsa Fatehnama – July 2008