Pak activitists try to get square renamed after Bhagat Singh

Pakistani activists are attempting to rename the square where Bahgat Singh along with Sukhdev and Rajguru was hanged, after him. During a ceremony held Friday evening at Shadman Chowk, the spot where Singh was hanged on March 23, 1931, civil society activists paid rich tributes to the freedom fighters and demanded that the Pakistan government rename the square as Bhagat Singh Chowk. A candlelight vigil was part of the event organised by the Bhagat Singh Foundation.

"Bhagat Singh was born in Banga a village of what was then Lyallpur (now Faisalabad) on September 27, 1907. He didn't offer his life for a specific country, region or the nation, as he did this only to save the people from the British rulers' massive tyranny and plundering," said Abdullah Malik, head of the Bhagat Singh Foundation. "He was of the view that the British rulers had illegally possessed the region just to loot its resources, depriving those who actually had the right to use these," Malik said while addressing the participants of the ceremony that marked the 81st death anniversary of the freedom fighter.

Malik said civil society organisations of Pakistan believed that the heroes of the independence movement, including Singh, should be recognised without any discrimination. "Though Singh was a hero of the independence movement before 1947, today's historians have forgotten him and several others," he said. The governments of Pakistan and India should pay rich tributes to all heroes who sacrificed themselves for the sake of getting freedom from the British by holding events and functions, he added.

In a related development, the Ajoka Theatre group premiered a documentary titled "Becoming Bhagat Singh", directed by Nirvaan Nadeem, at the Punjab Institute of Language, Art and Culture to commemorate Singh’s death anniversary. Bollywood film director Mahesh Bhatt, who was the guest of honour on the occasion, said Singh believed in the dignity of man and a never-ending revolution. He should not only be remembered on March 23 but every day because of his revolutionary thoughts, Bhatt said. Bhatt lauded the documentary for having a lot of information about Singh's life.