Shaheed Bhai Nishan Singh Khapar Kheri

Babbar Khalsa

 

Bhai Nishan Singh was born in the year 1970 to the blessed womb of his mother, Mata Gurbachan Kaur and father, Sardar Hazara Singh in the village of Khapar Kheri, Amritsar. He was the youngest of four children, with two brothers and a sister. Bhai Nishan Singh hailed from a normal village family, who earned their livelihood by working in agriculture and farming their family-owned land. He studied up to tenth grade at the local village school in Guru-Ki-Wadali. Bhai Nishan Singh came from a very devote and religious family background. Both parents lived a fully Gursikh lifestyle and had instilled the same values and principles into their children. Bhai Nishan Singh abided by the very same values and had much love for his Sikhi. He would often take his friends for random visits to Sri Harmandir Sahib, Amritsar. Here he would get the beautiful privilege to catch glimpse of many Jhujaru Singhs and the blessed opportunity to listen to the sermons of Sant Jarnail Singh Ji Khalsa Bhindranwale.

 

Then came the attack on Sri Harmandir Sahib by the Indian state in June 1984. Thousands were killed and those Jhujaru Singhs who sacrificed their lives defending the Sri Darbar Sahib, attained Shaheedi. This genocide of the Sikhs by the Indian Government completely changed the demographics of the relations with Sikhs worldwide.  Every Sikh, young and old had utmost disbelief and hatred against the Indian Government for what they did. Bhai Nishan Singh, at the time, was only 14 years of age. The attack on Sri Harmandir Sahib had left him distraught and full of anger. He did not take a minute to charge towards the farming tools at home, picked up a hand cutter and was ready to walk out his front door and head to Sri Harmandir Sahib to retaliate back against the army. His parents pleaded with him not to go and only just managed to persuade him.

 

The rise of the armed struggle and movement for a free Khalistan expanded following the attack. It is also very well known that a lot of participation and contribution came from the Majha region (Region of Amritsar). The CRPF police went far and wide in Punjab to pick up all the young Sikh males and kill them in fake encounters. Their aim was to wipe out an entire generation of young Sikhs and injure the Sikh Psyche. Bhai Nishan Singh also became a victim of this radical wipe out and the Punjab police began to interrogate and harass him and other Sikhs around his local village.

 

He was not going to stand for this and knew he had to join arms with the Jhujaru Singhs. In 1992, he came into contact with Bhai Hardev Singh Jorh Singh Wala and others Jhujaru Singhs from the militia group of Babbar Khalsa. Bhai Nishan Singh did not hesitate to join them. Bhai Nishan became closely associated with Bhai Jaswinder Singh Jaj Johal and formed a close brotherly bond. Bhai Nishan Singh showed how brave he was and contributed to many Jhujaru actions. He had great skill in utilising his firearm when fighting against the police in many confrontations, with the ability to then escape. One of their well-known encounters was in the village of Lallu Ghuman, where 20 or so policemen were killed and 3 of his fellow Jhujaru Singhs attained martyrdom. Considering the heavy cordon, both Bhai Nishan Singh and Bhai Jaswinder Singh Jaj Johal managed to clear the area and escape.

 

On 18th November 1992, in the Chibrianwali village of the Mukhatsar district the Bhai Nishan Singh and Bhai Jaswinder Singh Jaj Johal along with other Jhujaru Singhs took refuge in a fruit garden. It was the month of November and it was extremely cold, the Singhs requested duvets from the local gardener. But the gardener went to the Sarpanch of the village and said that there are armed men in the fruit gardens. The news spread and eventually reached the police. The police now surrounded the fruit gardens from all 4 sides and switched on the headlights of their jeeps. During these days the police had created an atmosphere of fear due to the Kale Kache Wale crimes and this made the locals report to the police if they saw strangers in their villages. The police may not have fully succeeded in this tactic but the Jhujaru Singhs were having to struggle to find a place for rest.

 

After surrounding the fruit gardens, the police straight away drove one of the jeeps into the garden. By now the Jhujaru Singhs had taken their positions with their assault rifles. The Singhs of Dhan Guru Gobind Singh Ji Maharaj rained bullets on to the police jeep that not even one police officer that was in the jeep survived. The Singhs then quickly took the weapons of the killed police officers and showered bullets on to the enemies.

 

Thousands of police, CRPF and BSF soldiers had come onto the scene. But the starving and tired Jhujaru Singhs continued to answer each bullet of the Indian regime with a bullet of Khalistan with bravery. The 4 Jhujaru Singhs of Babbar Khalsa continued to change positions and attack unsuspectingly, these Singhs held the enemy in their thousands at bay for over 28 hours. The Singhs had laid a carpet on the battlefield of the bodies of the dead enemies. Like this after 28 hours of battling the Indian security forces Bhai Nishan Singh Khapar Kheri, Bhai Jaswinder Singh Jaj Johal, Bhai Kharak Singh Chabba and Bhai Bikramjit Singh Raju Pehlwan Varpal attained Shaheedi and drank the sweet nectar of martyrdom.

 

The Indian security forces had suffered great damage and had lost big number of their soldiers, this was a great embarrassment for the government. To wash this embarrassment off, the Indian security forces took the 6 Sikh youths who were locked up in a local police station and bought them to the scene of the encounter and killed them also to make it out to be as they were also part of the Jhujaru group. The press was told that 10 Jhujaru Singhs were killed in this encounter, but the truth is that there were only 4 Jhujaru Singhs who fought on this night who had set of from Sri Harimandir Sahib after doing Ardas. The Ardas was heard the court of Akaalpurakh and that’s why the Singhs fought for 28 hours with bravery and honour and finally attained Shaheedi. This will be amongst one of the biggest embarrassments of the Indian government.

 

Information given by the family of Shaheed Bhai Nishan Singh Khapar Kheri