Shaheed Bhai Gurmeet Singh Khalsa

Khalistan Commando Force

 

Khalistan Commando Force Area Commander, Shaheed Bhai Gurmeet Singh Khalsa was born on 25th May 1962 in Francis Newton Hospital, Ferozepur. Bhai Sahib’s father, Sardar Lakha Singh was in the army at that time. Because of the religious atmosphere in the house, Bhai Gurmeet Singh was attached to Sikhi from the beginning. The family came to their ancestral village Lehra Khana near Bhucho Mandi in Bathinda. Bhai Sahib studied up to the 5th class in the school of this village and then further passed 10th class in good grades at the Government High School, Bhucho Mandi in 1979. Bhai Sahib was 6 foot 3 inches tall and had a well-built body due to being a Kabaddi player. In DAV College of Bathinda, Bhai Sahib enrolled for 11th class. Here he met a Jhujaru leader, Bhai Bakhtaur Singh Advocate, and from here Bhai Sahib became active in the Sikh Students Federation. In 1983, Bhai Sahib joined the EME army trade in Sikandrabad, Uttar Pardesh, but soon into this job Bhai Sahib gave his resignation and returned back to Punjab. It was during this time that Bhai Sahib married to the daughter of Sardar Banta Singh, resident of village Gill.

 

Under the leadership of Sant Jarnail Singh Ji Khalsa Bhindranwale, Bhai Sahib first gave his voluntary arrest in 1983, during the Dharam Yudh Morcha and remained in the Central Jail of Bathinda for several months. After being released in 1984, he came in contact with Sant Jarnail Singh Ji Khalsa Bhindranwale. Even after that, Bhai Sahib was subjected to police torture several times and after being released from jail in 1989, he vowed not to be caught alive by the police and went underground to join the Jhujaru Singhs who were fighting for the freedom of Khalistan. On one hand, the cruel police harassed the family of Bhai Sahib and on the other hand, Bhai Sahib was moving towards victories by fighting police encounters. Seeing his achievements, Bhai Sahib was appointed as the Area Commander of Khalistan Commando Force. In a fierce police encounter in 1989 in the nearby village of Bega, Bhai Sahib managed to escape successfully. Even today, people talk about him not allowing any non-Sikh to be harmed in his area during the continuous armed struggle.

 

The martyrdom of Shaheed Gurmeet Singh Khalsa began when he started living near his house in the fields for treatment after being injured in a road accident during the armed struggle. Here, he remained for a week until his martyrdom. It was during this time that the police had received a tip-off from the person who had picked Bhai Sahib up for treatment. A police tout from another nearby area was also doing CID of Bhai Sahib. Bhai Gurmeet Singh Khalsa drank the cup of martyrdom in a fierce encounter with the police at three o’clock in the morning on 14th October 1990. It is a prominent example of Bhai Sahib’s popularity in the area that when the police refused to hand over the body of Shaheed Bhai Gurmeet Singh Khalsa, people gathered in large numbers from Lehra Khana and nearby villages like Lehra Bega, Kothe Thande Wala and started besieging the police, the police had to bow before the Sikh anger.

 

Tavareekh Shaheed-E-Khalistan 2 – Ranjit Singh Damdami Taksal