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Shaheed Bhai Gurpal Singh Babbar
Balpreet Singh
Introduction
During the mid 80’s, the movement for a free state for the Khalsa was in its
early stages. Scores of Singhs were shot and killed with each passing day.
Thousands of bright young men and women came forward to take up arms and fight
the Brahmanical oppressors, who were bent on decimating Sikhi forever. The
events of 1978 and 1984 had a deep impact on the psyche of every Sikh, this
ignited a passion for Sikhi and transformed them into saint-warriors. One such
youth was Bhai Gurpal Singh Jee from Bhuccho Mandi, district Bathinda.
Youth
Bhai Sahib was born in 1968 at Bhuccho Mandi, Bathinda. Bhai Sahib came from very
educated, rich, and prosperous family. Both of Bhai Sahib’s parents were
teachers and taught at nearby high schools. Bhai Sahib was an amritdhari from
childhood and was very devout. He would
go to the Gurdwara daily and listen to
nitnaem there and only then eat anything. By the time he was in his teens he had
many many bannian kanth(memorized) and was a very good akhand paathi from
larivaar saroop.
 Bhai Sahib get naam dhridh and took amrit of Shri Guru Gobind Singh Jee from the
Akhand Kirtani Jatha at the Ludhiana Smagam. From that day he kept Sarbloah
Rahit of the Khalsa. When he came home that night, on his shoulder he was
carrying a boori, a hemp sack filled with sarbloh battae and other vessels. He
immediately took all the china and glassware and threw them in the garbage. Bhai
Sahib told his parents, “We will cook and eat in sarbloah from now on. This is
the guru’s rahit.” Before going underground Bhai Sahib was always
tayaar-bar-tayyar and wore the Khalsayee bana, with a damala and chola. Bhai
Sahib was very strong and had a good physical build.
Bhai Sahib as
Engineer
Bhai Sahib was a very intelligent person who was a natural at architecture and
engineering. Bhai Sahib was under 15 when he designed and oversaw the building
of their beautiful new house. The house was designed in such a way that it
stayed cool in the summer and warm in the winter. He himself built a chvara,
second storey room with four walls exposed. On the top parts of all the outside
walls of the chvara he wrote Gurbani shabads in concrete. He did the same on
every other wall of the house. He had so much love for bani that he could not
live without it. He wanted all that Gurbani in the house to keep reminding him
to always read Gurbani.
When he made the chvara he noticed that he could not meditate with as much
concentration as he wanted. He thought that he could focus more on bani if all
the outside noise was eliminated. So he came up with a plan to make a basement
under the master bedroom. At that time and even now basements virtually did not
exist. It was not a practical building practice then. But Bhai Sahib devised a
plan to make a bhora right underneath the existing room on the ground floor. He
secretly put this plan into motion, only his parents knew about this. When he
was done, this basement was totally self-sufficient and included a vent for air
circulation.
Joining the
Movement
Bhai Sahib excelled in education and skipped a couple of grades. He decided to
enroll in an Engineering Program at Punjab University at
 Ludhiana. He was one of
the most intelligent students that the University had ever seen. It was there
that he met Singhs that were working against the tyrant regime. He quickly
picked up knowledge about weapons and began to take active part in the movement
for freedom. The Singhs at the university did regular sat sang at the university
dorms.
Bhai Gurpal Singh jee soon took part in big operations such as the rescuing of
Bhai Anokh Singh Jee from the Ludhiana Court houses. He worked together with all
organizations of Singhs. Bhai Sahib took action with Bhai Jarnail Singh Halwara
and Bhai Manmohan Singh jee. Bhai Sahib was always in chardi kala and had a
tremendous nitnaem. No matter what duty brought, he always did two Sukhmani
Sahib paths before eating his evening meal. Singhs that saw him talk about the
red-Gurmukhi glow that was present on his face.
Soon he became the brain of the operations conducted in the Malwa region. In
early 1987 Bhai Sahib came to see his parents and told them, “My time is near,
do not cry after I am gone, get Singhs to do an akhand paath for me.” Before
teaching a lesson to many evil police officers Bhai Sahib’s time to get
Shaheedee had finally come.
Shaheedee
One hot spring three companions were asleep in Haripur, Sangroor, when someone
tipped off the police and CRPF. Bhai Jarnail Singh Halwara
 and Bhai Gurpal Singh
Jee were inside the building, and another Singh was sleeping outside. The two
Singhs heard a scuffle outside and immediately knew what was happening, they
locked the doors and took machine guns with them and made their way out the back
door. There they were met with heavy resistance by the CRPF. The two Singhs
fought like true Khalsa warriors and killed dozens of CRPF and policemen. Both
Singhs suffered multiple bullet wounds and attained Shaheedee. Observers say
that both Singhs’ heads did not touch the ground, such was the love that Guru
Sahib had for these two chardi kala Singhs. Bhai Gurpal Singh jee was only 19
years of age at the time of Shaheedee!!! The day was May 10, 1987.
After their Shaheedee countless Singhs gathered at Bhai Gurpal Singh’s house and
did an akhand paath and akhand kirtan, which was done in great chardikala. The
village of Halwara made a new gurdwara in honor of Shaheed Bhai Jarnail Singh
Jee Halwara. The ones that knew these Singhs will never forget the jeevan they
led. The ones that never knew them, now know what they missed.
Taken
from Tapoban.org |
