On March 23, 1931, Bhagat Singh, along with his associates Sukhdev and Rajguru, was hanged to death for the assassination of British police officer John Saunders. Produced here is the letter written by Bhagat Singh and his comrades on May 8, 1930, to the tribunal, seeking to avail themselves of legal help in the Lahore Conspiracy case. The Punjab Archives, Lahore, has made it public

Chaman Lal
Former JNU Professor and Honorary advisor to Bhagat Singh Archives and Resource Centre, Delhi

A Special Tribunal of three High Court judges was notified by Chief Justice of Punjab High Court Chief Justice Shadi Lal, on May 1, 1930 for the trial of the Lahore Conspiracy case. This tribunal consisted of Justice Coldstream as President and Justice Agha Haider and Justice Hilton as members. While on May 5, five comrades of Bhagat Singh wrote to the tribunal about their decision to boycott the tribunal, 10 other comrades, including Bhagat Singh, wrote on May  8, 1930, their response to avail themselves of legal help for the case.

This letter had not been found earlier. But in March 2018, the Punjab Archives, Lahore, for the first time after 1931, put up an exhibition of a few exhibits from the over 100 files related to Bhagat Singh. Ammara Ahmad, a Lahore journalist, was kind enough to send the photographs of a few exhibits, including this letter.

The Punjab Archives, Lahore, has claimed that it has now made all records of Bhagat Singh public and probably digitalised them also. It would be good if the Punjab Government in Chandigarh approached the Punjab Government in Lahore to share all records relating to Bhagat Singh and the records are put on display in Khatkar Kalan (Nawanshahr-Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar State Museum on Bhagat Singh). 

The following is the text of the letter:

In the court of the Special Tribunal

Lahore Conspiracy case, Lahore

Crown vs. Sukhdev & others

Charged under secs 302, 120-B+121-A, IPC

This humble petition of the accused persons Bhagat Singh & others most respectfully showeth:

(1) That the petitioners are charged with most serious offences including sec. 302 with 120B and 109 IPC

(2) That the majority of the petitioners have been lodged for the last eight or nine months in jail.

(3) That with one exception, all the petitioners as stated below belong to distant provinces and as such have no relative here to look after their defence.

1. Ajay Kumar Ghosh  — Allahabad, U.P

2. Bejoy Kumar Sinha—Cawnpore, U.P

3. Prem Dutt — Srinagar, Kashmir

4. Kamal Nath Tewary—Betiah, Bihar

5. Shiv Verma —Hardoi, U.P

6. Jai Dev Kapoor — Hardoi, U.P

7. S.N. Pande — Cawnpore, U.P.

8. Kishori Lal — Quetta, Baluchistan

9. Des Raj — Sialkot, guardian outside India

(4) That five of the petitioners are unrepresented accused defending their case themselves.

(5) That for the reasons stated above in paras 3+4, the petitioners can make arrangement for their defence only through their friends, attorneys and members of defence committee.

(6) That it is therefore prayed that in the interest of justice, the learned court be pleased to grant the petitioners following facilities-

I. Interviews with friends, attorneys, legal advisors and members of defence committee members and relatives in court during lunch hours or after the rising of the court during the one hour stay… for mutual consultation

II. Instructions should be sent to the Supdts of Borstal and Central jails for allowing interviews with the same.

III. Subject to accommodation the legal advisors of the unrepresented accused be given seats in the body of the court room.

IV. Recognition of the defence committee and permission to two members of committee to sit in the body of the court subject to accommodation.

(7) That it is prayed that in view of the large number of prosecution exhibits of this case, one of the days of the week preferably Saturday be set for the examination of the exhibits by the accused and their counsels.

Hand written and signed by-

1. Bhagat Singh

2.  Bejoy Kumar Sinha

3. Ajay Kumar Ghosh

4. SuPande

5. Jai Deva Kapor

6. Kishori Lal Ratan

7. Prem Datt Varma

8. Shiv Varma

9. Kamalnath Tewari

10. Des Raj

8th May 1930

(Official Stamp Lahore)

Mumbai, March 9

Linking Pathankot and Pulwama terror attacks to elections, MNS chief Raj Thackeray today said another “Pulwama like strike” could occur in near future in a bid to win polls.

He also slammed as “insult to jawans” Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement that presence of Rafale jets could have added to more firepower to the February 26 raids by Air Force on a terrorist camp in Pakistan’s Balakot.

Thackeray was addressing party workers on the 13th Foundation Day of the MNS.

Thackeray alleged that the warnings issued by intelligence agencies prior to the Pulwama attack were ignored.

“Forty jawans were martyred in the Pulwama attack. Should we still not ask questions? In December, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval had met his Pakistani counterpart in Bangkok. Who will tell us what transpired at the meeting?” he said.

Taking a dig at BJP president Amit Shah’s statement on the number of casualties in the Balakot strike, the MNS chief said whether Shah was one of the the “co-pilots” who participated in the air strike.

Thackeray claimed the Indian Air Force “missed” targets it had intended to hit in Balakot because of “wrong information” provided to them by the Modi government.

“If the Prime Minister himself says that results would have been better had the country have Rafale jets, it was an insult to our jawans,” he said.

Disputing that terrorists were killed in the air raids, Thackeray said had that been the case, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman would not have been allowed to return home from captivity by Pakistan. — PTI

Azhar Qadri

Tribune News Service

Hajin, March 24

In Hajin, which defended militants in recent years, people are angry over the abduction and killing of a young boy as foreign militants face serious erosion of public sympathy in this north Kashmir town which was fiercely supportive of them.

A rare hostage crisis on Friday in which two militants refused to let go of a 12-year-old boy — whose charred body was foundafter a gunfight, which ended when security forces blasted a house — has shocked Hajin where residents had shielded militants during manycounter-insurgency operations.

The act of holding the boy hostage now threatens to erode the sympathy which the militants enjoyed for the last three years, when the first group of mainly foreign militants settled in the densely populated town which has a tribe-like social structure.

“The militants committed a big blunder. Hajin had become a paradise for them. e protected them with our blood but they ruined it all,” a shopkeeper in Hajin’s main roundabout said.

Even as people talk with reverence about militants who stayed and died in Hajin, like a foreigner code-named Musaib, whose body locals had refused to handover to the police, the shock from the hostage incident is overwhelming.

Atif, the young boy who was taken hostage, was the only son of a well-settled orchardist, Mohammad Shafi Mir, and Shareefa Jan, who also have three daughters. His cousin Abid Hamid Mir, alias Arhaan, was among the two Hajin youthswho became militants in 2017, the first from Hajin in more than two decades. His uncle Hilal Ahmad Wani from Sopore was also a militant and had died in 2008.

A distraught Mohammad Shafi, who attended to the mourners at a tent pitched in a neighbour’s courtyard, told The Tribune he did not know why his son was kept hostage. “The militants came three or four days ago. I don’t know why they did it,” he said.

Hajin’s history is chequered with violence. It was the home to Kashmir’s most feared counter-insurgency militia commander, who turned the town into a base for his ruthless campaign against militants, their sympathisers and civilians.

The dreaded militia was disbanded by the government and its members hunted and killed, and, by 2013, Hajin was forgotten as conflict moved to different arenas.

More than a decade later, a group of foreign militants — which failed to reach south Kashmir where they were to reinforce a resurgent wave of populist militants — settled in Hajin in late 2015 and found sympathy, support and protection among its people, who were eager to shed the tag of association with the militia.

Ali, the militant who held the boy hostage, is believed to be either a part of that first group or the second group that followed into Hajin two years later.

In Hajin, like anywhere else in Kashmir, the new generation of militants is seen with reverence and their deaths are celebrated as martyrdoms. However, Ali, described by residents of Hajin as a seven-foot tall Baloch and athletic, was killed on an ignominious note.

“Satan had overtaken him,” said a resident of Hajin’s Mir Mohalla, where Ali had held the boy hostage. Another man, a next door neighbour of the Mir family, said the crime was unforgivable. “No matter what, he should have let the boy go,” he said.

Such was the impact that for the first time since 2016, there was no stone throwing in the area even as the gunfight dragged for two days. The shutdown that was later observed was specifically for Atif and not for Ali and another foreigner Hubaib, residents said.

Three days after the incident, neighbours volunteered on Sunday to clear the debris of Mohammad Shafi’s blasted home as anger against militants continued to deepen in the neighbourhood.

A young man from Mir Mohalla, who was sympathetic to militants, said Ali had become “frustrated and rogue” and wanted to marry the daughter of the house owner. “When it was refused, he lost his mind,” he said.

“They (militants) would knock on any door in Hajin and it would be opened for them because it was out of love. This will not happen now,” he said. “They came here for a cause and we trusted them but for now, the trust is broken,” he said.

Tribune News Service

Jammu, March 20

Air Commodore Ajay Singh Pathania took over the command of the Jammu Air Force Station as the Air Officer Commanding (AOC) from Air Commodore SK Mishra today.

On this occasion, an impressive ceremonial parade by the Air Warriors was held at the Air Force Station in Jammu.

Air Commodore Pathania was commissioned in the Indian Air Force in 1986. An experienced flying instructor and a graduate of Defence Service Staff College, the officer has flying experience of about 6,000 hours on helicopter and trainer aircraft in India and abroad to his credit.

He has been the Flight Commander of three types of helicopters and commanded two types of helicopter units, which includes Chetak/Cheetah in the eastern sector of India and MI-25 in UN mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

He has been the Chief Operational Officer of a premier IAF base and also commanded a Tactical Air Command in the eastern sector. The officer has also served as personal and operational staff at Air Headquarters. He was directly involved in major humanitarian assistance and disaster relief helicopter operations between 2012 and 2015, including in the Kashmir valley, Jammu and Uttarakhand, etc.

He was instrumental during the rescue and relief operations after the Nepal earthquake as well as the Yemen evacuation in April 2015. He has been the AOC and President of the Air Force Selection Board at Kolkata (Kanchrapara) and Dehradun.

He was awarded the Chief of the Air Staff commendation in 1995, AOC-in-C HQ Training Command commendation in 1997 and the Vishisht Seva Medal in January 2015.

Rafale deal: The Hindu report, citing a “Defence Ministry note” of November 2015, stated that the Ministry “raised strong objections to ‘parallel negotiations’ conducted by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) with the French side” in the Rafale deal.

In the Supreme Court Wednesday, the Centre threatened action under the Official Secrets Act against two publications claiming their reports on the Rafale fighter deal were based on documents “stolen” from the Ministry of Defence.

But on February 8 — the day The Hindu newspaper published a report citing official notings and news agency ANI put out the same note with more notings — Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while countering the contents of The Hindu report, made no mention of any “stolen” document when she spoke in Lok Sabha.

The Hindu report, citing a “Defence Ministry note” of November 2015, stated that the Ministry “raised strong objections to ‘parallel negotiations’ conducted by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) with the French side” in the Rafale deal.

Sitharaman said the note published along with the report did not include a noting by the then Defence Minister, Manohar Parrikar, who had negated the concerns.

Read | Defending Rafale deal, Govt unveils new weapon: Official Secrets Act

“When the newspaper itself has chosen to say or point out in detail the then Defence Secretary’s comment which was meant for the attention of the then Raksha Mantri, it should have also put the reply of the Raksha Mantri which was also given in writing. If the newspaper wanted to bring the truth out, I would have thought that it was incumbent upon that newspaper to put the reply of the then Raksha Mantri also on record,” she said.

Editorial | Stealing the facts

“The Opposition leaders who want a reply should now know what the reply of the then Raksha Mantri, Shri Parrikar was… The then Raksha Mantri, Shri Parrikar, had very clearly said in response to the file noting of the then Defence Secretary to ‘remain calm, there is nothing to worry, things are going all right’. To that extent, a detailed reply was given by the then Raksha Mantri, Shri Parrikar Ji … In all fairness, it should have been the duty of the newspaper which has published this to also put it on record the comment of the Defence Secretary and that the reply given was this,” she said.

News agency ANI released another copy of the note that included Parrikar’s response.

Also Read | Will not disclose our sources on Rafale documents: N Ram

Sitharaman charged the Opposition with damaging the country. “They are not interested in the Indian Air Force getting powerful. They are not interested in the Indian Air Force becoming empowered. They are working to the tunes of multinational corporate warfare. They are damaging this country. I charge them with that offence,” she claimed.