NEW DELHI: Two years ago India hung two leading Sikh political activists Bhai Harjinder Singh Jinda and Bhai Sukhdev Singh Sukha in Yervada Central Jail, Maharashtra, for killing the country’s chief of army staff, General A.S. Vaidya, in 1986.
Carried out in tight security, the hangings left a trail of worldwide bitterness among the Sikhs against the Indian state with public demonstrations and strikes by the community, In Punjab, the public at large observed a three-day long mourning and strike.
Accounts of the last hours of the two Sikh youths make it clear that the youths faced the gallows courageously as they raised slogans of “Khalistan Zindabad.” “Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, Zindabad” and “Bole, So Nihal, Sat Sri Akal.”
Bhai Sukhdey Singh and Bhai Harjinder Singh remained awake the whole night on October 89 as the administration announced their plans to hang them at 4 a.m. on October 9. They took their bath at midnight and recited “gurbani.” Bhai Harjinder Singh shook hands with the jail authorities and thanked them for the treatment meted out to them while they were in custody. They also had a brief talk with Bhai Nirmal Singh Nimma who is lodged behind the barracks meant for condemned prisoners and were also involved in the Vaidya murder case but had been sentenced to imprisonment. According to the authorities, the two not only put up no resistance but actually offered to tic their necks with ropes on their own.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 7, 1994
