At the place of heaven, almost 18,500 Sikhs killed in Kashmir from 21 oct to 28 oct. Unfortunately, not any single seminar has held in memory of that martyrdom of Kashmir. ‘Sardar Ganga Singh Rains’ was from village ‘Vaampura’. When the tribals surrounded the entire village, Sardar Ganga Singh Rains went into the forest and fought the tribals. This family fought in such a way that the tribals and the Pakistani soldiers left the field and ran away.
Sardar Ganga Singh think about to go home because tribals had ran away. He came back to home along with his family, son ‘Sahib Singh’, wife ‘Maan Kaur’, two grandchild ‘Surjit Singh’ & ‘Neet Kaur’ and daughter-in-law ‘Bibi Makhan Kaur’. The tribals surrounded the village in huge numbers at night. Lastly, when they had no bullets and other weapons left. They surrounded the house and first killed the men in front of the women of the house. They torture Sardar Ganga Singh, leading to his martyrdom, they also kill Sahib Singh and his mother Maan Kaur.
Presence of Mind of Sikh Girl
The rest of the family had martyred. Bibi Makhan Kaur and her two children Surjit Singh and Neet Kaur survived only. The daughter-in-law Makhan Kaur was young, the tribals started saying to her ‘Yeh to hur hai, yeh to jannat ki hoor lagti hai isko saath ke ke hale hain’ which means, ‘She is an angel of heaven, let’s take her along’. Bibi Makhan Kaur’s answer was that ‘OK, if you want to take me along with you, then I am ready. But, before I go, I have a request that I am a child of Sikhs and there are dead bodies of my family. First of all, I will cremate bodies of my own family according to religious beliefs, then I will go with you.
Those tribals also collected wood for the funeral that maybe Bibi is ready to go with us. Bibi recite ‘Anand Sahib’, placed the dead bodies of the family on those woods, prayed. The tribals was very happy that Bibi took both the children in her lap now she will go with us. When the flames fully lit the pyre, the lady prayed, shouted ‘Bole So Nihal,’ and jumped into it herself.
Three books published in Kashmir mention this martyrdom. However, this country’s tragedy is that no one has recognized this martyrdom on the map of the world. But if Kashmir is a part of India today, it is because of the sacrifices of those 18,000 Sikhs.
Sikhs Bravery
in the ‘Karachi Masahbad’ Urdu newspaper, then General Khurshid Anwar of the Pakistan Army said that If the Sikhs of Atna, Berwa, Ishama and Sahura villages had not confronted us with their indigenous guns, we would have captured the Sri Nagar airport on the 24th (The Sikhs of here had fought the Pakistani army with indigenous guns made of truck axles).
In the garden of Shahura, the heads of the Sikhs were cut off and hung on the trees of that garden. ‘Sardar Thakar Singh’ himself killed 25 young girls of his family so that the Muslim tribals would not rob them of their dignity.` These martyrdoms are very big.
Bhai Gurdas ji says,
“ਜਿਉ ਮਣਿ ਕਾਲੇ ਸਪ ਸਿਰਿ ਪਥਰੁ ਹੀਰੇ ਮਾਣਕ ਛਾਇਆ। ਜਾਣੁ ਕਥੂਰੀ ਮਿਰਗ ਤਨਿ ਨਾਉ ਭਗਉਤੀ ਲੋਹੁ ਘੜਾਇਆ।”
It can be understood that if the golden heritage of the nation is to be saved then martyrdom have to be given. Just as musk has to be extracted from a deer, even then its life has to be taken, that is, when one has to achieve something, one has to go through a difficult process which is called martyrdom.
Hence, this country is saved because of the sacrifices of the Sikhs. Personally, we just want that we should celebrate the martyrdom of these Sikhs of Kashmir on some day or the other.