 |
Dilawar Singh Babbar | |
|---|---|
| File:Dilawar Singh Babbar.jpg | |
| Born | 18 August 1970 |
| Died | 31 August 1995 (aged 25) Chandigarh, India |
| Cause of death | Suicide bombing |
| Known for | Assassination of Beant Singh |
| Parent(s) | Harnek Singh Surjit Kaur |
Dilawar Singh (18 August 1970 – 31 August 1995) was the assassin of Beant Singh, the chief minister of Punjab, India amid the insurgency in Punjab.[1] He was a serving Punjab Police officer and became a suicide bomber for the Babbar Khalsa International.[2] He assassinated Beant Singh by blowing up his bullet-proof car at 5 p.m. on 31 August 1995 in the city of Chandigarh killing the chief minister and 17 others.[3][4][5][6][7]
Family[edit | edit source]
Dilawar Singh's mother, Surjit Kaur, and father, Baba Harnek Singh,[8] live in Guru Nanak Nagar, Patiala, Punjab, India. His father was a government employee. Dilawar Singh had two brothers.
Assassination of Beant Singh[edit | edit source]
In Punjab between 1992 and 1995, at a time when the Khalistan movement was active in the state and the Indian government was aggressively seeking to control the movement, during Beant Singh's tenure, many innocent Sikhs were killed unlawfully.[4][9]
Dilawar Singh, who was a police constable at that time, conspired with Balwant Singh Rajoana, a police officer, to kill Beant Singh. The attack on 31 August 1995 resulted in the death of Beant Singh, Dilawar Singh and 17 others,[10] and, on 25 December 1997, backup police officer Rajoana confessed his involvement[11] while blaming the Indian government that it has murdered its own innocent people and promoted and honored the killers of Sikhs including chief minister Beant Singh. He refused to contest the court proceedings because of his lack of trust in the Indian judicial system, and death penalty was awarded to him.[6]
Aftermath[edit | edit source]
On 23 March 2012, he was awarded with the title of "National Martyr" by the Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of the Khalsa.[12]
The Khalsa Action Committee (KAC), an umbrella organization of several Sikh organizations, honoured the father and mother of Dilawar Singh, Harnek Singh and Surjit Kaur with the Shaheed Baba Deep Singh gold medal at a function in the city of Amritsar.[13][14]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ "Will Balwant Singh Rajoana be hanged on Saturday? 10 big developments". NDTV. 28 March 2012. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
- ↑ "The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Opinions". Retrieved 1 April 2015.
- ↑ "Babbar Khalsa International". Retrieved 1 April 2015.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Romesh, Silva; Marwaha, Jasmine; Klingner, Jeff (2009), Violent Deaths and Enforced Disappearances During the Counterinsurgency in Punjab, India: A Preliminary Quantitative Analysis (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 17 July 2011, retrieved 14 August 2012
- ↑ "Why Balwant Singh Rajoana never appealed against his death sentence". The Times of India. 29 March 2012. Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Yug Mohit Chaudhry. "Why Balwant Singh Rajoana shouldn't be hanged". The Hindu. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
- ↑ "The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Opinions". Retrieved 1 April 2015.
- ↑ HighBeam
- ↑ "Dark clouds of state repression: Police excesses have broken Punjab". Retrieved 1 April 2015.
- ↑ "India puts Sikh radical Rajoana's execution on hold". BBC News. 28 March 2012. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
- ↑ Saurabh Malik (19 March 2012). "Promises to keep". The Tribune. Chandigarh. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
- ↑ "Go to President and get Beant killer released, Akal Takht orders Badal". 24 March 2012. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
- ↑ PunjabNewsline.com - Punjab radical Sikhs honour human bomb's family Archived 2011-07-15 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ "The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Punjab". Retrieved 1 April 2015.
Further reading[edit | edit source]
Dr Harjinder Singh Dilgeer, SIKH HISTORY IN 10 VOLUMES, The Sikh University Press, Belgium, 2012.