BECHINT SINGH, BHAI

BECHINT SINGH, BHAI (1872-1921), one of the Nankana Sahib martyrs, was the son of Bhai Sundar Singh and Mat Sahib Kaur, a peasant couple of the village of Pharala in Jalandhar district. The family migrated to Chakk No. 258 Pharala in the newly colonized district of Lyallpur in 1892. In 1907, while returning from Haridvar after immersing in the River Ganga the ashes of his deceased wife, Bechint Singh stayed for a couple of months at Amritsar where he came in contact with a holy man, Sant Kirpal Singh, at whose hands he took the pahul of the Khalsa.

He brought the Sant to his village where he lodged the latter in a room specially built for him on his farm. The Sant had the villagers raise a gurdwara in the village. Bechint Singh became a zealous Sikh and especially went to Mastuana, near Sangrur, to participate in karseva in progress there under Sant Atar Singh for raising a gurdwara. He also volunteered to join the jatha or band of Sikhs who had offered to go to Delhi to rebuild one of the walls of Gurdwara Rikabganj demolished by the British or face death.

He attended the Akali divan at Dharovali on 13 October 1920 and accompanied the jatha which proceeded straight from that meeting to Sialkot, for the liberation of Gurdwara Babe di Ber. On 19 February 1921, Bechint Singh with his cousin Ghanaiya Singh was at Chakk No. 91, district Sheikhupura for a condolence call when the jatha of Bhai Lachhman Singh was passing by on their way to Nankana Sahib. Both joined the jatha and attained martyrdom at Nankana Sahib on 20 February 1921. See NANKANA SAHIB MASSACRE

References :

1. Shamsher, Gurbakhsh Singh, Shahidi Jivan. Nankana Sahib, 1938