Surjit Singh Penta: Difference between revisions

Surjit Singh Penta was a Sikh who became a militant and Sikh martyr. He joined the Khalistan movement, after he had been personally affected by the Delhi Anti-Sikh riots in 1984. He later joined the Bhindranwala Tigers Force of Khalistan. He was wanted in about 40 cases of killings in Delhi and Punjab.

He also punished some of the goons who killed innocent Sikhs in Delhi during the anti-Sikh riots.

One elder Singhni, her name is not known, was caught with her husband, son and his two sons (about 5 to 7 years of age).Holding on to her grandchildren her husband and son were doused with fuel and burned alive before her eyes. The rioters tauntingly told her they would spare her grandsons, if she herself would cut the hair of the boys. But that great lady refused to do it. Her grandsons were thrown on burning flame of stove but that brave Singhni remained unmoved. Then the ringleader of the mob said:

"Give that poor lady 1,000 rupees, she has lost everything." He then started laughing.

The brave Singhni replied:

"Your turn will come soon".

After that she was cut into pieces.

It is said that the Singhni's prediction came true, for Surjit Singh Penta tracked down and killed that ringleader and some of his goons.

Surjit Singh Penta was martyred during Operation Black Thunder. He died after biting a capsule of cyanide, which had been hidden in a ring, after he noticed that some police officers had recognized him.

Others, however, hold that he was caught in Operation Black Thunder and martyred later in a staged police encounter.

The first account, however, was witnessed by many journalists so the latter seems to be made-up. Following is cited from an article [1] by an eye-witness Tarun J. Tejpal, a renowned Indian journalist and Editor in Chief, Tehelka.com.

"I WAS AMONG several who saw him die. His name was Surjit Singh Penta, and the year was 1988. A smartly calibrated siege of the Golden Temple had just ended in the surrender of all the militants holed up inside the Harmandir Sahib, the Temple’s sanctum sanctorum. As they filed out and squatted in the courtyard of the serai on the Temple’s periphery, a sudden commotion broke out. The police spotters had recognised a major militant. But before they could lay hands on him, he had swallowed his cyanide pill, and though the police threw him into a jeep to rush him to hospital, he was dead. Penta’s story deserves telling because it illustrates the pathology of oppression. The young Sikh was a national-level athlete representing Delhi before he became a witness to the brutal Sikh massacres of 1984. By the time he committed suicide a few years later more than 40 killings were attributed to him.

Before he became a terrorist Penta had been terrorised by the state — or its malign absence".