BHAGAT Singh is one of Punjab’s true heroes who remain a focus of interest to scholars and the common people across the divide.

He was born today in 1907, to Kishan Singh and Vidyavati in the Lyallpur district (now Faisalabad) and brought up in this part of Punjab.

Educated in Lahore, all the major events of his political activity -- his trial in what was remembered as the Lahore Conspiracy case, his imprisonment, the legendary hunger strike for the rights of political prisoners that he and his comrades went through and, finally his execution at the Lahore Central Jail – took place here. So was a major part of the history of the Ghadar rebellion that was the subject of the First Lahore Conspiracy Case of 1915.

Shiv Verma, a fellow revolutionary, was asked as to what set Bhagat apart from other revolutionaries. He replied: “Bhagat Singh was our undisputed ideological leader.

I do not remember a single moment when Bhagat Singh did not have a book in his pocket. The other virtues of Bhagat Singh like tremendous courage and so on were there in the other revolutionaries amongst us also. But his uniqueness lay in his great studiousness.

The degree of clarity and integrity that he had about the aims of our movement was not there in any of us at that time”.

On Singh’s 106th birthday, the people of India and Pakistan, especially the youth, must vow to carry forward the revolutionary teachings of Bhagat Singh.

Amidst slogans of ‘Inqilab Zindabad’ and ‘Down with imperialism’ on March 23, 1931, he was hanged at a young age with his two associates while singing the following couplet:

Love for the motherland will not leave my heart even after death, its fragrance will still be there in my dusty remains.

HAROON JANJUA Rawalpindi