New Delhi January 6; Satwant Singh and Kehar Singh embraced Martyrdom today at 8.00 a.m. (IST), they walked defiantly to the gallows looking blissfully composed and dignified, where India’s official hangmen Kalu and Fakira were waiting for them. History will record their execution as an irrefutable evidence of India’s rabid Hindu theocracy in which other religious minorities must either slavishly submit to the Hindu masters or suffer strangulation at the gallows. Their case will be cited by dispassionate legal luminaries as a clear illustration of India’s forked justice system. No one with even a grain of sense of justice can reconcile to the execution of a person simply on the basis of an unsubstantiated suspicion, especially in a system where publicly indicted murderers of November, 1984 anti-Sikh holocaust are elevated to cabinet positions instead of facing the gallows.
Kehar Singh and Satwant Singh were executed in Delhi’s Tihar jail. India’s official hangmen, Kalu and Fakira, have been living here for two months as lawyers fought increasingly desperate battle to « ‘stave off the executions.
The two hangmen tested the scaffolds on Thursday, using sandbags to test the trapdoors and six meter (19Foot) ropes.
A group of twelve witnesses attended the executions, after which the bodies were left hanging for 30 minutes before being pronounced dead:
The defense lawyer R. S. Sodhi disclosed that Satwant Singh wanted to donate his eyes, kidneys, lungs, and heart after the death.
In a telephonic message to World Sikh News, Mr. R.S. Sodhi added, “We have done our best. It was a very bitter legal battle and I have lost it. 1 wish the government had not been so adamant and taken the opportunity provided by the Supreme Court to commute the sentences of Satwant Singh and Kehar Singh. Two lives need not have been lost because of sheer vendetta.
SATWANT’S PARTING GIFT DONATES HIS EYES. HEART. LUNGS AND KIDNEYSPolice in Amritsar, home of the Golden Temple, Sikhdom’s holiest shrine, ordered all educational institutions closed on Friday and Saturday. Extra security forces were spread throughout Punjab and northern cities, especially Delhi.
It was Indira Gandhi’s order to the army to attack the Golden Temple that triggered her assassination.
More than 6,000 people, including innocent devotees trapped inside the vast complex, were killed in the attack. More than 4,000 people, mostly in Delhi, were slaughtered in a wave of anti-Sikh. Violence after she was killed.
Few of those responsible have been brought to trial, a continuing source of outrage among Sikhs.
In Punjab, a spokesman for one of the Sikh militant organizations said the Government should be ready for the consequences.
The army was put on standby throughout the North Indian state and all security forces, totaling around 70,000 men, were deployed from Friday morning
Security precautions were especially tight around Amritsar and Gurdaspur districts, the focuses of Sikh violence in recent months, and at key installations.
The hangings were expected to spark trouble from Sikh separatists fighting for independent homeland in Punjab.
We will set the nation on fire, militants declared in a message sent to reporters in Amritsar, the Sikh holy city which is a hotbed of militants.
We will do something which should have an impact all over the country.
Meanwhile, the news of their execution sent a wave of anger and indignation among the Sikhs all over the world. S. Gian Singh Sandhu, President WSO International said, Following mock trials, which violated all established norms of justice, fairness and humanity, Satwant Singh and Kehar Singh have been executed in India on Friday 6, 1989 at 8.00 a.m. to eliminate the possibility of real truth coming out. These legal murders haye become a trade mark of India’s justice.”
“Yet, where is the justice for Beant Singh? No one has been brought to trial for his murder. Where is the justice for thousands. Of innocent Sikh men, women, and children who were victims of rape, cruelty, and murder at the hands of Indian Government’s hired hoodlums ?
“World Sikh Organization, the international voice of Sikhs strongly condemns the courtroom charades of the Indian Government”.
In a separate telegram to the defense lawyer R. S. Sodhi, he requested him to convey the following messages to Satwant Singh and Kehar Singh on behalf of all the Sikhs of the world, “you will always be remembered in the » hearts of the Sikhs all over the world. Your sacrifices will not go in vain. No one can give or take anyone’s life. Whatever is happening is Waheguru’s wish, May Guru be at your side in both the worlds. This is our Ardas.”
S .Gurcharan Singh Dhillon, President WSO (USA) offering his tributes to the two martyrs disclosed that on the request of ‘WSO. Sikh Sangat of North America offered Ardas in the Gurdwara at the time Satwant Singh and Kehar Singh were being executed in Tihar jail in Delhi. He also appealed to the Sikhs to perform Akhand Path on January 22, 1989 for the peace of the brave sons of the Panth who had smilingly embraced martyrdom and hold diwans to offer tributes to them followed by peaceful protest demonstrations.
- Didar Singh, in a statement condemned government of India’s revengeful execution of Satwant Singh and Kehar singh and declared that their martyrdom would serve as a source of renewed inspiration for establishing sovereign Sikh homeland, Khalistan.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 6, 1989
