Shaheed Bhai Ranjit Singh alias Charat Singh

Khalistan Liberation Force

Bhai Ranjit Singh was born in the year of 1973, in the house of Sardar Bikkar Singh and from the womb of Mata Surjit Kaur in the village of Surewala, district Mukhatsar. In 1981, due to the flood waters rising in Surewala, Bhai Sahib’s family moved to Mukhatsar Sahib. Bhai Sahib had studied up till 6th class at the school in Surewala and then studied up to 10th class at a government school in Mukhatsar Sahib. After passing his 10th class, Bhai Sahib joined the Homeguard. During this time Bhai Sahib had established a contact with the Jhujaru Singhs who were fighting on the frontline of the Sikh Freedom Movement.

As days went on, Bhai Sahib started to take more interest in the Sikh Freedom Movement. The Jhujaru Singhs who were fighting in the movement showed great deal of respect and love towards Bhai Sahib and slowly Bhai Sahib himself started taking part in actions discreetly. Soon Bhai Sahib could not carry out actions as his Homeguard duty was too much. Bhai Sahib decided to quit the job and after leaving home, Bhai Sahib joined Khalistan Libation Force.

A short while after Bhai Sahib had gone underground, an informant had Bhai Sahib arrested. For 15-20 days Bhai Sahib was brutally tortured in Faridkot’s CIA Staff, but once the police realised they can’t get any information from Bhai Sahib they charged him with many cases and sent him to Faridkot jail. Bhai Sahib was finally given bail after 14 months. Bhai Sahib stayed at home for a few days and then once again he went underground and re-joined the singhs of Khalistan Liberation Force. The Jhujaru Singhs gave Bhai Sahib the code name of Charat Singh to use while doing actions. Even in Bhai Sahib’s group, only a few selected singhs knew Bhai Sahib’s real name or even his family. Bhai Sahib never spoke about his personal life with anyone, everyone knew Bhai Sahib as Bhai Charat Singh. Bhai Sahib took responsibilities of actions under this name also.

To bring the Sikh Freedom Movement for a free Sikh homeland down, the Indian secret agencies prepared black cats to become fake Jhujaru Singhs and informants. These were not the only type of people that were killing the movement, the third type were those people that would give accommodation to Jhujaru Singhs and later have them arrested or even killed for the cash reward. These people caused so much damage to the movement.

To get information of Sikh Freedom Movement from the inside, the police had the people who accommodated Jhujaru Singhs on the government payroll. This plan worked as the Jhujaru Singhs never doubted the people who served them food, for this reason Jhujaru Singhs would never be afraid to talk about the movement with these people. This was how the enemy earned the trust of the Jhujaru Singhs and then opened their secrets to the Indian security forces. We must stress the point, there were also people who continuously did sewa of Jhujaru Singhs and even when they were tortured by the police, they never gave any information regarding the movement. Nothing scared these people, that would make them go against the Jhujaru Singhs, they stood their ground like a mountain and fully supported the singhs within the movement.

Bhai Sahib was amongst those Jhujaru Singhs who were arrested and killed by the Indian security forces with the help of the people he had trusted. On 29th June 1991, Bhai Sahib and Bhai Baljit Singh, who was the son of Bhai Gurjant Singh Budhsinghwala’s Bhua had gone to a house to collect the money they had left safe with the owners of the house. These owners had won the trust of Bhai Sahib but the big sum of money and the greed of the owners had turned them against Bhai Sahib. This collection was to be made from the house in the village of Surkuri, near Jeto. The two singhs did not know that this family who they had left the money with had now joined the police to have the singhs captured and keep the money for themselves. Short time after the singhs had entered the house, the owner of the house told the singhs he has to go out to get the money, but the owner had gone to the police to inform the police that the singhs have arrived. Now the police had tightened the already surrounded area in which these singhs were in. the singhs only found out about the police presence when they asked the singhs to surrender, Bhai Sahib and Bhai Baljit Singh did not have no assault rifles on this day, but they started an encounter with the police with their pistols. The singhs tried to escape, but the heavy presence of police did not let that happen. In the end, both singhs attained shaheedi bravely and avoided coming into the hands of the police alive. Bhai Sahib lived by the following lines of a poet, Bhai Gurpinder Singh Mukhatsar:

Daultaan Shaurtaan De Nahi Kaday Gulaam Ban Day

Zindagi Ankh Di Jiona Jo Pasand Karday

Nokar Ban Ke Chakri Karan Nalo

Baadhshahi Kaum Di Kaim Karnay Li

Jionde Hoy Oh Marna Pasand Karday

Khalsa Fatehnama – June 2013