Introduction
During the mid 80s, 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
Ajmer Singh Lodhiwal.
Below is an interview with a Singh who was involved in the
movement about the character of his beloved friend and brother
Bhai Ajmer Singh Lodhiwal.
Interview with Bhai Gurcharan Singh
"My mother was a deeply religious person, but my father used
to be in¬volved in the Naxalite movement. From one aspect the
Naxalites were justified, as they were fighting for the
downtrodden. But, as they were atheists, I always thought the
ideology was incomplete. Without God how could they have
achieved any real change? My father used to talk with me and
my friends about many things like this.
Bhai
Ajmer Singh
Ji’s safe house
"As for me, I became involved in the Khalistan movement
through my close friend Ajmer Singh Lodhiwal. Another friend
of his got martyred in the struggle, and Lodhiwal had to go
into hiding. For this, he came to me, and my house was a safe
hiding place for him. He used to come to my dormitory room at
college, too. Lodhiwal was a deeply devout Sikh, and he had a
profound intellect. In conversing with him I learned so much,
and I felt the pull of the mission for which he was working.
The Saint soldier
"The biggest attraction for me was that, although Lodhiwal was
living through the rigors of a very strenuous underground
life, he was a baptized Sikh, and his commitment to Guru was
total. His tremendous energy went to Guru and to the movement,
both.
"Ajmer Singh Lodhiwal was also a very moral person. One of
the things characteristic of him was that he always gave a
warning, he openly challenged somebody before punishing him
for his misdeeds. One important case involved the station
house officer of Bagabarana, who was a Hindu. This SHO had
insulted Lodhiwal's father, he had pulled his beard and
humiliated him. So
Ajmer
challenged him. 'I'll kill you,' he said. That SHO accepted
his challenge and retorted, 'You are my prey; wherever you are
I will hunt you down and get you.' But Ajmer Singh Lodhiwal
killed him right in front of the police station, in full view
of everybody.
"My friend was very brave. He always gave people a chance to
change, if they were behaving in an inappropriate way. He gave
them two warnings, three warnings. But when they refused to
change, he had the courage to finish them off.
The Morals of Bhai
Ajmer Singh
"I will tell you one other story about the high values of
Ajmer Singh Lodhiwal. One of his friends had a love affair
with a girl from the Untouchable class. It was not genuine
love actually, I mean the girl was in love with him but he was
just playing around. But Lodhiwal told him, 'You have no right
to fool around with the sentiments of that girl. Either you
marry her, or I'll kill you.' The friend said, 'How can I
marry her, she is of the lowest class!' And Lodhiwal said,
'When you started fooling around with her, was she of the high
class then?' Anyway, the friend did marry that Untouchable
girl and Lodhiwal paid all the marriage expenses, the dowry
that should have come from her side and all. They are still
living happily.
"Lodhiwal eventually became the lieutenant-general of the
Khalistan Liberation  Force, under Bhai Avtar Singh Brahma.
"Bhai Gurjant Singh Budhsinghwalla was a lieutenant-general
with him. It was the policy that before anybody went for any
action the high command would discuss it among themselves,
whether a thing was morally right or not. The only criterion
they used was Sikh values. Never was anything that went
against Sikh values decided.
For the Good of the Kaum
“Let us do something for the good of the Kaum, the
time we are given is very valuable and who knows when we might
die.”
These are the immortal words that Bhai Ajmer Singh Lodhiwal
used to say to his brothers and sisters in arms when they were
sat around for a few days doing nothing.
Bhai Kulwant Singh
In the middle of the afternoon Bhai Daljeet Singh and a few
other Singhs reached the house of Bhai Ajmer Singh. When they
looked at the house they saw Bhai Sahib’s father, Bhai Kulwant
Singh Ji, who was sick, lying on a bed. When Bhai Kulwant
Singh saw the Singhs walking towards his house he immediately
got up and met them with great love.
Bhai Kulwant Singh was very weak due to several illnesses;
even now he suffers from a very severe heart condition. But
even with all these difficulties and problems he remains in
chardeekala and not for a second does he regret what his
beloved son did. When he spoke to the Singhs about other
things his voice was quiet, but as soon as he mentioned some
things about his son, Bhai Ajmer Singh, his voice began to get
louder and louder. The Singhs who were sat next to Bhai
Kulwant Singh began to cry tears of happiness as he narrated
Bhai Ajmer Singh’s jeevani.
Whilst narrating Bhai Sahib’s jeevani, Bhai Kulwant Singh also
began to praise some Police officers. He said that some Police
officers would come to their home and say, ‘Baba Ji send your
family somewhere else. Don’t leave your second son over here,
don’t leave him at home. If you do the security forces will
come and arrest him and then kill him in a fake encounter in
place of
Ajmer.’
Mata Kuldeep Kaur
After Bhai Ajmer Singh Ji left home and began to live his life
not for himself or for his family, but for the sake of the
Sikh Kaum, his mother and the rest of his brothers and sisters
left their home and went to stay in
Gwalior.
Even though this was where she was born and where she grew up
Mata Kuldeep Kaur missed her home. As a result of this she
used to come back very often to visit. They used to have many
animals but when they found out they had to leave they
distributed all of their cows etc amongst their relatives.
Even the fields where they used to grow their crops began dry
as no one took care of them. When Mata Ji would return home
she used to think a lot about Bhai Ajmer Singh.
 After
the Shaheedi of Bhai Jarnail Singh Halwara the police then
began to focus their attention on Bhai Ajmer Singh Lodhiwal.
They used to come to Bhai Sahib’s house many times. The police
began to get very frustrated that they couldn’t catch this
beloved Singh of Dhan Dhan Guru Gobind Singh Ji Maharaj. One
time when they came to Bhai Sahib’s house they found his
father there. They began to interrogate Bhai Kulwant Singh Ji
and when he didn’t reveal any information they arrested him
and kept him in detention for one and a half years.
A few days after Bhai Ajmer Singh Ji left his home for good
the police came and began to ask Mata Ji about the last time
that she had seen him. Mata Ji told the police that she had
seen Bhai Ajmer Singh a week ago. When she saw him he had a
bag on his shoulder and after that he never returned home. She
had sent him to study and as Mata Ji said this tears began to
fall and she stopped speaking.
Manjeet ‘Singh’
There was one police officer called Manjeet ‘Singh’ who used
to come to Bhai Sahib’s house many times. When he walked into
their home he used to shout at Bhai Kulwant Singh Ji and he
used to ask Bhai Sahib where his son was. Bhai Kulwant Singh
Ji used to plead with this officer, and he used to tell him
that Bhai Ajmer Singh had done nothing wrong. Bhai Kulwant
Singh Ji used to repeatedly tell this police officier that,
“Bhai Ajmer Singh has left us to go and study and do seva,
please don’t ruin his life”.
But this shameless Police officer instead of listening to Bhai
Sahib’s father began to hurl insults at him before slapping
him in front of the whole village.
“You will reap what
you sow”
When news of what had happened was flashed to Bhai Ajmer Singh
Ji he immediately got up and lifting his AK-47 in the air he
declared before all the Singhs who were with him,
“Now I’m not going to leave
Manjeet alone!”
After it came in the newspaper that the ‘brave’ Manjeet
‘Singh’ had been shot dead in an encounter with ‘terrorists’,
people in the village Lodhiwal who had witnessed what Manjeet
‘Singh’ had done to Bhai Kulwant Singh Ji began to say, “you
reap what you sow”.
As soon as Bhai Ajmer Singh Ji had sent Manjeet ‘Singh’ to
face Dharam Raj in broad daylight, a big load was lifted of
his head.
Agent’s Reports
After this incident no more news was heard about Bhai Ajmer
Singh Ji for a while. The Police under the head of one, Kufiar
Thudher took it on themselves to find out who the next dusht
Bhai Sahib’s AK-47 was pointed at.
During this time the legend of Bhai Ajmer Singh began to
spread and soon his name began to echo in all the corners of
Punjab. People used to say that there was nothing that Bhai Ajmer
Singh Ji couldn’t do. In an attempt to catch this lion of Guru
Sahib the police sent out many agents across
Punjab. These agents used to send reports back to their
head quarters every time they would learn something new about
Bhai Sahib. It is said that upon reading these reports the
whole Punjab Police began to shiver.
Bhai Sahib at College
Before Bhai Ajmer Singh Lodhiwal began to walk on this path of
truth and justice he used to go to Akaal Degree College in
Mastuana where he was studying for a BSC. Bhai Sahib was over
six foot tall. When he was at college he used to do Bhangra on
the stage. Bhai Sahib was liked by all those who would meet
him but no one would have ever thought that one day this Singh
would walk through the fields of Punjab with an Ak-47 on his
shoulder.
The College that Bhai Sahib used to attend was built in memory
of Sant Baba Attar Singh Mastuanawale. Near this college was a
Gurudwara Sahib which students used to go to when they were
free.
There were many people in that college who used to hate Sikhs.
As a consequence of this one day they got together and under
the cover of darkness they sprayed graffiti which contained
some very hurtful comments about Sikhi and Guru Sahib on the
walls of the Gurudwara Sahib and the College.
When Bhai Ajmer Singh Ji and his friends saw this they
immediately began to look for those who had dared to defile
the house of God. In addition to this they all joined the Sikh
Student Federation. Eventually Bhai Sahib and his Singhs
managed to set up a cell at their college. During the 80s and
early 90s this cell produced many soldiers who took up arms
and who eventually sacrificed themselves for the good of the
Kaum.
The Lion’s Den
In Patiala two IPS officers who had committed crimes against
the Sikh Kaum had been shot dead by Singhs in the Khalistan
Liberation Force under the command of Bhai Ajmer Singh Ji.
This action was a very brave one undertaken by the Jhujaroo
Singhs. After this incident other IPS security officials began
to fear for their lives. They used to talk amongst themselves
that if you were given a posting in Punjab as a security
official it was like being sent into a lion’s den to meet
death itself. As a consequence of the daring actions of the
Khalsa the security forces began to send many messages to
their commanding officers in Dehli. In these messages they
always used to say that if Dehli does not give the Sikhs what
they want there will be no peace and tens of thousands of
security officials would continue to die at the hands of the
Khalsa.
A New Home
The Police in Jagroun had kept Bhai Ajmer Singh Ji’s father in
jail for one and a half years. They never thought of raiding
Bhai Sahib’s house, as they knew that he would not come back,
such was his determination and commitment to Khalistan. This
was an amazing testament to the iron character of Bhai Sahib
who had now made his home and place of refuge in the caring
hands of Guru Nanak Dev Ji.
Bhai Ajmer Singh had simply got up one day and picked up his
sword in defence of the Kaum. Once he had done this he never
looked back but only marched forward towards his Guru. As a
Jujharoo Singh not much was written about Bhai Sahib in the
newspapers. This was because most of the seva Bhai Sahib did
was kept very gupt and only known by the Singhs who were very
close to him. The police simply could not figure out whom the
lion was who was striking so daringly and devastatingly in the
heart of the Punjab Police.
Shaheedi
On
the 28th of February 1989,
Bhai Ajmer Singh, Bhai Bakthar Singh and Bhai Jagdeep Singh
Vakheel were close to Ludhiana Railway Station. These three
Singhs were waiting at an agreed meeting point for Bhai Sher
Singh. As Bhai Sher Singh was making his way towards this
place the police spotted him. An encounter then began and
during this exchange of fire Bhai Ajmer Singh Lodhiwal drank
the nectar of martyrdom.
Conclusion
Bhai Sahib’s Shaheedi was a big loss to the movement, as
Singhs like him aren’t born everyday. Bhai Sahib was a
complete Gursikh who walked on this path with his head held
high. He never lowered it before anyone apart from his beloved
Guru. There is no doubt in my mind that even though he may
have been forgotten in this shameful world, Guru Gobind Singh
Ji embraces him now, just as Guru Sahib does for all shaheeds
who broke their bodies and who spilt their blood to keep the
Kesri Nishan Sahib flying.
After Bhai Sahib took his place at the feet of Guru Nanak Dev
Ji the village Lodhiwal used to celebrate his shaheedi divas
with great love and many Akhand Paths were held in remembrance
of this brave soldier. Nowadays things have changed. Both Bhai
Sahib’s parents, Bhai Kulwant Singh Ji and Mata Kuldeep Kaur
have become very ill and find it hard to organise the same
celebrations, which were conducted year after year in memory
of the Shaheeds of Khalistan.
Even though this family has faced so many difficulties due to
their son’s actions, and due to the indifferent attitude of
the current leaders of our panth, they still remain happy and
proud that they could give their son to the same Kaum who
today has forgotten about them. They happily accept everything
as the sweet will of Akaal Purakh but a mother’s love is a
mother’s love and sometimes Mata Ji looks at Bhai Ajmer Singh
Ji’s picture and begins to cry as she remembers her beautiful
son smiling and embracing her.
Despite no help coming for the Sikh Kaum, Bhai Kulwant Singh
and Mata Kuldeep Kaur don’t ask for anything. They don’t want
any maya or any other materialistic things. Bhai Kulwant Singh
Ji even today says that Guru Sahib has already blessed his
family with so much, he is the father of a Shaheed, of a rare
jewel of the Panth, what more could he ask Waheguru for? The
only benti these two beautiful souls put at the feet of
today’s Sikhs is that they remember and reflect, on the blood,
which was given, on the sacrifice that was made, and on the
love that inspired their older brothers and sisters to wake up
and walk on this path with an Ak-47 strapped across their
shoulders.
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