Shaheed Bhai Manjit Singh Heran 

Khalistan Commando Force

 

After the Sikh genocide of 1984, to fulfil the dream of a national home, Khalistan, thousands of Sikh youths of Punjab jumped onto the battlefield and into the ongoing Sikh struggle. At the same time, the blood of the Sikh youths living abroad was also boiling due to the Sikh genocide of 84 and the desecration of Gurdwaras by the Indian army. Let’s talk about a similar Singh who gave up all the comforts of his life and came to Punjab from Germany for the dream of a Sikh homeland and attained martyrdom, Shaheed Bhai Manjit Singh Heran.

 

Bhai Manjit Singh Heran was born in Sardar Gurdial Singh’s house to Mata Resham Kaur in village Heran, district Jalandhar. The main occupation of the family was agriculture. Bhai Manjit Singh Heran had another brother Sardar Balveer Singh and two sisters. Bhai Heran completed his education up to 10th class from the village high school and took admission in National College of Nakodar for further higher education, where the activities of the Sikh Students Federation were active. Bhai Heron also became a member of the Sikh Students Federation for the interests of the Sikh nation. After which Bhai Heran started actively participating in the activities of the federation and used to conduct conferences. Due to this, the SPD of Jalandhar, Swaran Ghotna first arrested and severely tortured Bhai Manjit Singh Heran.

 

Similarly, Bhai Manjit Singh was arrested for the second time in 1989 again by Swaran Ghotna. It is worth mentioning that Swaran Ghotna was such a cruel butcher, who tortured hundreds of Sikh youths and martyred them in the name of false police encounters. Before Bhai Manjit Singh Heran, Bhai Rashpal Singh Karnana and Bhai Avtar Singh Mintu Karnana (both brothers) had been arrested by this Swaran Ghotna and this arrest was made by the help of Rupinder Rupi, a resident of Khalwara Gate from Phagwara City, who was a black cat of the Punjab police. Bhai Rashpal Singh Karnana was blindly tortured, after on 14th August 1989, Bhai Rashpal Singh Karnana and Bhai Manjit Singh Heran were taken to Heran village with blankets over their faces. Bhai Manjit Singh was shown his village from the outskirts of Heran, “Today, see your village for the last time because after this you will die.” a police officer said. The two Jhujaru Singhs, Bhai Rashpal Singh Karnana and Bhai Manjit Singh, were then taken to the bridge of Sukhana, a village of Kapurthala district. The two Singhs were taken out of the vehicle and made to stand on the bridge. Both of them had a blanket over their faces and their hands were tied behind their backs. The policemen fired the first burst at Bhai Rashpal Singh and the second burst at Bhai Manjit Singh Heran, but that burst was deliberately shot over the head of Bhai Manjit Singh. Bhai Manjit Singh felt death so close for the first time that it was as if death had touched him. Bhai Manjit Singh was released by the police after a political leader and the village panchayat Sukhana.

 

The family then spoke to an agent to save their son’s life, they gave money and sent Bhai Manjit Singh Heran abroad to Germany. After reaching abroad, Bhai Heran started doing whatever work he could, then he started organizing Shaheedi Smagams in memory of the martyred Singhs. While living in Stuttgart, Bhai Heran also started financially helping his Sikh Jhujaru brothers who were fighting on the battlefield for the freedom of Khalistan on the soil of Punjab. Bhai Manjit Singh Heran’s mind was unsettled. Finally, Bhai Manjit Singh Heran, freed from all the distractions of his mind, made up his mind to return from Germany to Punjab in 1991. He booked a flight from Holland, directly to go to the neighbouring country Pakistan. Bhai Manjit Singh visited his neighbouring country so that he could learn guerilla warfare and other war tactics.

 

So, Bhai Heran took good training in guerilla warfare policy and weapons for two years and finally, four days before Dussehra in 1993, 6 Jhujaru Singhs, Bhai Manjit Singh Heran, Bhai Paramjit Singh Panjwar, Bhai Kewal Singh Tarsikka, Bhai Gurmail Singh Kaunke, Dr. Sohan Singh and Bhai Surjit Singh Kaleke left for Punjab. When these Singhs reached Kathmandu, the police had already laid a trap for them. Many reliable sources say that this travel was reported to the police by Surjit Kaleke. So, in this way five Singhs were arrested by the police from a house in Kathmandu. Bhai Manjit Singh Heran, Bhai Kewal Singh Tarsikka, Bhai Gurmail Singh Kaunke, Bhai Surjit Singh Kaleke and Dr. Sohan Singh, but Chief of Khalistan Commando Force, Bhai Paramjit Singh Panjwar was not present at that place. After some time, when Bhai Panjwar came towards this house with his two other companions, seeing a crowd outside the house, he felt that something had happened and turned back from there. Bhai Paramjit Singh Panjwar reached Nepalgarh from Pokhar and from Nepalgarh by air to Dehradun.

 

Bhai Manjit Singh Heran, Bhai Kewal Singh Tarsikka, Bhai Gurmail Singh Kaunke, Dr. Sohan Singh, and Surjit Kaleke were brought to Punjab by the police via air transport. Dr. Sohan Singh was handed over to the Mohali police. Bhai Manjit Singh Heran, Bhai Kewal Singh Tarsikka and Bhai Gurmail Singh Kaunke were severely tortured and all the three Jhujaru Singhs were martyred. Now there was a fifth companion who was caught, that was Surjit Kaleke who was not harmed and was living his life perfectly. Later he was also given gunmen for protection. So, the suspicion that reliable sources had informed the senior leadership of Jhujaru Singhs seems to be true from the fact that he is alive and has not been tortured or punished. When, where and how the martyrdom of Bhai Manjit Singh Heran took place will always remain a mystery. It is only known that Bhai Manjit Singh Heran was caught in the clutches of the police and never seen again.

 

Information given by Bhai Loveshinder Singh Dalewal