Dilawar Singh Babbar (1970–1995) or Dilawar Singh Jai Singh Wala was a Punjab Police officer and member of Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), who assassinated former Chief Minister of Punjab Beant Singh by acting as a suicide bomber at the Secretariat on 31 August 1995. Had murdered. Complex, Chandigarh.
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Dilawar Singh was born on Tuesday, 18 August 1970 (age 25 years at the time of death) in his maternal village Panjgrain, Punjab. His zodiac sign is Leo. Dilawar Singh’s father shifted from his native village, Jai Singh Wala, to Patiala, where Dilawar grew up at street no. 12 in Guru Nanak Nagar. There he met Balwant Singh Rajoana, Lakhwinder Singh Lakha and Gurmeet Singh, all of whom were later accused of Beant Singh’s murder. While Lakkha lived at the intersection of street numbers 9 and 13, Gurmeet Singh lived at street number 4. 14. After completing his formal education, Dilawar Singh started his career as a Punjab Police officer with Balwant Singh Rajoana.
A picture of Balwant Singh Rajoana and Dilawar Singh Babbar
Physical Appearance
Height (Approx): 5′ 9″
Hair Color: Black
Eye colour: black
Family
parents and siblings
Dilawar Singh Babbar’s father, Harnek Singh, worked as a senior assistant in the youth welfare department of Punjabi University, Patiala. His mother’s name is Surjit Kaur. Dilawar had two brothers, Chamkaur Singh and Harvinder Singh. Chamkaur Singh worked as a Senior Financial Analyst and Revenue Officer in the Department of Youth Services, Government of India.
Dilawar Singh Babbar’s father
SGPC officials presenting Siropa to Dilawar Singh’s mother in memory of her son.
SGPC officials presenting Siropa to Chamkaur Singh, brother of Dilawar Singh
wife and children
He was unmarried.
rebellion in punjab
Beant Singh was sworn in as Chief Minister of Punjab in 1992, following Operation Blue Star, the assassination of Indira Gandhi and the anti-Sikh riots of 1984. At that time, in terrorism-stricken Punjab, armed Sikh separatists had been fighting for an independent homeland of Khalistan for almost 12 years. Dilawar Singh joined Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), one of these separatist organisations, when he was serving in the Punjab Police. From 9 June 1993 to 18 September 1994 he served as a Special Ops Officer in Fatehgarh Sahib District. While working as a Special Ops officer, he oversaw government-sanctioned counter-terrorism operations in which the Punjab Police carried out numerous extrajudicial killings and illegally detained young Sikhs. By November 1994, the Punjab government fired several special operations officers across the state, including Dilawar Singh. With this dismissal, Dilawar Singh realized that the SPOs were appointed by the government only to massacre innocent Sikh youth in the name of counter-terrorism operations. These events angered Dilawar, who then willingly assassinated Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh. Although Beant Singh’s success in reducing terrorism in Punjab revived the overall respect for the Sikhs in the country, which had been lost after the assassination of Indira Gandhi, he was accused of fake encounter killings, abductions and secret cremations during the insurgency in Punjab. The government was accused of approving the rites when it was there. Efforts to get rid of Khalistani terrorists. Subsequently, Dilawar rented a one-room residence in a secluded place at village Ratoli in Rajgarh tehsil of Sirmaur district around May or June 1995, where he held meetings with other BKI conspirators in connection with the murder.
Beant Singh’s murder
On 31 August 1995, Dilawar Singh, along with backup bomber Balwant Singh Rajoana, reached the Secretariat Complex, Chandigarh, in a freshly painted white Ambassador with Delhi license plate. Dilawar Singh wore his Punjab Police uniform beneath which he had 1.5 kg of explosives tied in a bandolier-shaped belt around his waist. After some time, when Balwant left, Dilawar wrote a couplet in Gurmukhi script on a piece of paper, which read,
Je mein shahidan di yaad vich geet na gaye, te ohna diyan ruhaan kurlun giyaan” (If I do not sing songs in the memory of the martyrs, their souls will feel pain).
At 5.10 pm, three white ambassadors arrived near the VIP portico in the secretariat complex to receive the CM. As Beant Singh was about to get into the car, Dilawar moved towards his bullet-proof car and pressed the bomb button. Beant Singh along with 17 other people including 3 Indian commandos and Beant Singh’s close friend Ranjodh Singh Mann lost their lives in the blast. Later, BKI claimed responsibility for Beant Singh’s death and attributed the indiscriminate atrocities against innocent Sikhs to a deeper criminal conspiracy during Beant Singh’s tenure as Chief Minister.
A photograph of the Secretariat Complex, Chandigarh, taken after the assassination of CM Beant Singh by suicide bomber Dilawar Singh Babbar on 31 August 1995.
after the murder
In September 1995, an abandoned Ambassador car with Delhi number was recovered by the Chandigarh Police, which led to the arrest of the first convict, Lakhwinder Singh. By February 1996, the police discovered the other conspirators, Gurmeet Singh, Naseeb Singh, Navjot Singh, Jagtar Singh Tara, Shamsher Singh, Jagtar Singh Hawara, Balwant Singh Rajoana and Paramjit Singh Bhiora. On 25 December 1997, Balwant Singh Rajoana confessed to his involvement in the murder of Beant Singh in the temporary court of Burail Jail, Chandigarh. Before being silenced, they raised pro-Khalistan slogans,
Long live Khalistan, long live Bhai Dilawar Singh!”
His confession surprised prison officials and journalists, who then asked Rajoana, “Why would anyone want to give up their life at a time like this?” To which Rajoana replied,
Tusi ki jaano dosti kinj nebhai jaandi hai.”(How do you know the way to maintain friendship?)
Apparently Dilawar and Balwant had tossed a coin to decide who would become the suicide bomber. So when Dilawar won the fatal toss and was prepared to lose his life, he asked Balwant Singh to confess his hand in the crime when the time came.
Other culprits of Beant Singh’s murder
Balwant Singh Rajoana (Backup Bomber)
On 25 December 1997, former Punjab Police constable Balwant Singh Rajoana confessed to his involvement in the murder of Beant Singh in the temporary court of Burail Jail, Chandigarh. The special CBI court had awarded death sentence to Rajoana on 1 August 2007. Rajoana was lodged in the Patiala Central Jail when the Chandigarh court issued a death warrant to the Patiala jail authorities to execute him, which was scheduled for 31 March 2012. Rajoana’s execution, which was to be carried out in Patiala Central Jail, was put on hold after Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal met Pratibha Patil to demand clemency for Rajoana. Later, his death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment on the basis of a long imprisonment of about 26 years.
Balwant Singh Rajoana
Jagtar Singh Hawara (Mastermind)
Hawara is considered the mastermind of the conspiracy to murder Beant Singh. Hawara, a BKI member, arranged the explosives and finance to purchase the Ambassador car used in the assassination. In January 2004, he escaped from Burail jail along with Tara and another after digging a 110-foot-long tunnel from inside a high-security jail in Chandigarh. However, he was re-arrested in Delhi in 2005. His death sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment.
Jagtar Singh Hawara
Jagtar Singh Tara (Mastermind)
Tara worked as a mechanic-cum-taxi driver in Delhi. Tara, an active member of the BKI, helped Hawara buy a car and brought it to Chandigarh, where he got it repainted to enter the Secretariat complex. Tara was arrested in Delhi in September 1995. However, during the hearing of the case in 2004 he eloped with Hawara and remained at large for 11 years. He was later arrested in Thailand in 2015. In 2018, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Jagtar Singh Tara in Thailand
Other
Lakhwinder Singh was a Punjab Armed Police constable attached to the Official Vehicle Wing of the Secretariat. Gurmeet Singh was a diploma holder in engineering, who worked for the Chandigarh service center of a consumer electronics company. RK Sondhi’s court in the temporary court of Burail jail sentenced Shamsher Singh, Lakhwinder Singh and Gurmeet Singh to life imprisonment. Meanwhile, Naseeb Singh was given a 10-year prison sentence, which he had already served during the trial that had been going on for more than 11 years. The seventh accused Navjot Singh was acquitted by the special court.
Address
House No. 23, Street No. 12, Guru Nanak Nagar, Patiala, Punjab, India.
Facts/General Knowledge
- During the hearing before the then District and Sessions Judge Amar Dutt, Balwant Singh Rajoana, remembering Dilawar, said,
It was nothing but divine intervention. As soon as Bhai Dilawar Singh was coming towards the Chief Minister, everyone around was stunned for a moment. That’s why there are no eyewitnesses.”
- Dilawar Singh came into limelight again on 15 June 2022, when the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) installed his portrait at the Central Sikh Museum inside the Golden Temple complex. The installation of the picture sparked controversy as Anti-Terrorist Front of India (ATFI) President Veeresh Shandilya said it was a sign of the return of terrorism in Punjab and called on Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to stop the installation of the picture. However, during the installation ceremony, SGPC President praised Dilawar Singh and said,
Martyr Bhai Dilawar Singh then ended the atrocities and gross human rights violations against the Sikhs. The decision of self-sacrifice is not possible without the blessings of the Guru and whenever there have been atrocities on the community (community/nation), the Sikhs have always created history by making sacrifices.”
- On 5 September 1995, when the police searched Dilawar Singh’s house, they found a small booklet on Shaheed Bhagat Singh. The book’s final title page featured a pen sketch of what appeared to be a belt bomb with a detonator device.
- On 23 March 2012, Dilawar Singh Babbar was given the title of ‘National Martyr’ by the Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of the Khalsa. Rajoana, on the other hand, was honored with the title of “living martyr”.
- Before his death, Dilawar Singh handed over his photograph to Balwant Singh, with a couplet written on the back which read,
Sada tah ek duniya aandar jogi wala phera hai, na hi eh jag tera sajna, na hi eh jag mera hai, es sohni nu doban li tah kachcha ghar bathera hai.”
(My journey in this world is the journey of a saint, this world is neither yours nor mine, this raw pot is enough to drown this ‘Sohni’.)
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Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn