Shabeg Singh

Singh was born in 1924 in Bhangu Jat Sikh family of Khiala village (earlier known as Khiala Nand Singhwala), about {{convert|9|mi|km|spell=in}} from the Amritsar-Chogawan road. He was the oldest son of Sardar Bhagwan Singh and Pritam Kaur, and had three brothers and a sister. He enrolled in Khalsa College in Amritsar, and later in Government College in Lahore.{{citation needed|date=June 2018}} Shabeg was a descendant of Mehtab Singh who killed Massa Ranghar after he captured the Golden Temple.{{Cite book |last=Sandhu |first=Amandeep |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KimgEAAAQBAJ&dq=general+shabeg+singh&pg=PT133 |title=Panjab: Journeys Through Fault Lines |year=2022 |publisher=Penguin Random House India Private Limited |isbn=978-93-5492-859-8 |language=en}}

In 1942, an officer-selection team visiting Lahore colleges recruited Singh to the British Indian Army officers cadre. After studying in the Indian Military Academy, he was commissioned in the Garhwal Rifles as a second lieutenant. Within a few days the regiment moved to Burma and later to Malaya. In 1945 when the war ended, Singh was in Malaya with his unit. His battalion reportedly captured freedom fighter Prem Sahgal and he ordered him not to be shot and instead taken to trial.

After the partition of India, when the Indian regiments were reorganised, Singh joined the 50th Parachute Brigade of the Indian Army. He was unofficially sent for service in the 1947 Indo-Pakistan War in Kashmir along with Maharaja Yadavindra Singh's Akal Regiment.{{Cite web |date=2023-01-17 |title=Defence of Srinagar 1947 |url=http://www.indiandefencereview.com/interviews/defence-of-srinagar-1947/ |access-date=2023-05-24 |website=Indian Defence Review |language=en-US}} He was noted to have snuck past Pakistani lines and gave information to the Akal Regiment about the Pakistani plans.

In 1962, during the India-China war, he was a Lt. Col. in IV Corps and fought in Bomdi-La.{{blockquote|Close at their heel I sent Lt. Col. Shahbeg Singh, mainly to press them forward. He went to Chako—Eagle's Nest—and beyond and showed, whilst on his mission, plenty of drive and guts.|author=Lieutenant General Brij Mohan Kaul|title=Untold Story}}

Promoted to lieutenant-colonel on 2 June 1965,{{cite news |title=Part I-Section 4: Ministry of Defence (Army Branch) |page=584 |date=13 November 1965 |publisher=The Gazette of India}} he later commanded the 3rd Battalion, 11 Gorkha Rifles, and was given command of a brigade on 4 January 1968.{{cite news |title=Part I-Section 4: Ministry of Defence (Army Branch) |page=172 |date=2 March 1968 |publisher=The Gazette of India}}

Soon after the 1965 operations, Singh became Col G.S. of an infantry division, after which he was given command of the crack 19 Infantry brigade in Jammu Sector.

With his leadership qualities and use of daredevil tactics he was greatly successful in handling the counter-insurgency operations in that region and crushed the Naga Insurgency, for the next four years there were no terrorist incidents. Singh was promoted to colonel on 12 June 1968 and to substantive brigadier on 22 December.{{cite news |title=Part I-Section 4: Ministry of Defence (Army Branch) |page=53 |date=18 January 1969 |publisher=The Gazette of India}}{{cite news |title=Part I-Section 4: Ministry of Defence (Army Branch) |page=376 |date=19 April 1969 |publisher=The Gazette of India}}

Singh was a notable figure with the press for his service in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.{{cite book |last1=Axel |first1=Brian Keith |title=The Nation's Tortured Body: Violence, Representation, and the Formation of a Sikh "Diaspora" |date=2001 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=9780822326151 |page=124 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gj8yJsixw8QC&pg=PA124 |access-date=22 August 2019 |language=en |quote=Bhindranwale drew a wide range of people to his side who could provide support for strategic military action, including two retired major-generals from the Indian army, Jeswant Singh Bhullar and Shabeg Singh (who was a national hero of the 1971 Pakistan War).}} On 6 July 1972, he was appointed GOC, Madhya Bharat Area(MP, Bihar and Orissa) of Central Command, with the acting rank of major-general,{{cite news |title=Part I-Section 4: Ministry of Defence (Army Branch) |page=95 |date=27 January 1973 |publisher=The Gazette of India}} and promoted to substantive major-general on 2 April 1974.{{cite news |title=Part I-Section 4: Ministry of Defence (Army Branch) |page=553 |date=19 April 1975 |publisher=The Gazette of India}}

In 1975 Shabeg Singh was asked by Indira Gandhi to suppress the Bihar Movement through harsh measures and arrest Jayaprakash Narayan.{{Cite book |last=Sandhu |first=Amandeep |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KimgEAAAQBAJ&dq=jp+movement+shabeg+singh&pg=PT134 |title=Panjab: Journeys Through Fault Lines |year=2022 |publisher=Penguin Random House India Private Limited |isbn=978-93-5492-859-8 |language=en}} Shabeg Singh wrote a letter back stating that the Indian Army should not be involved in political matters.{{citation needed|date=May 2023}} Shabeg Singh was assigned a command at area headquarters in Bareilly. Later the Indian Army threw charges under special clauses which were never invoked in the British Indian Army and has been invoked in the Indian Army only in his case, the case was related to him buying a Jonga on proxy.{{cite book |last1=Jaijee |first1=Inderjit Singh |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2-qGAAAAMAAJ&q=shabeg+singh+acquitted |title=Politics of Genocide: Punjab, 1984-1994 |date=1995 |publisher=Baba Publishers |isbn=978-1583672129 |page=229 |language=en |chapter=9: INFORMATION / COMMUNICATION |quote=The Indian Express investigated his past and found that two charge sheets filed against him by the CBI in an anti-corruption court in Lucknow had been disproved and he had been acquitted. |access-date=22 August 2019}}

Shabeg Singh was stripped of his rank without court-martial and thus denied his full pension.{{cite book |last1=Critchfield |first1=Richard |title=The Villagers: Changed Values, Altered Lives: The Closing of the Urban Rural Gap |date=1995 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |isbn=9780385420495 |page=383 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_Qv7-OZuQ8IC&q=General+Shabeg+Singh |quote=Stripped of his rank and denied a pension, he had bitterly nursed a grievance ever since and it was he who taught Bhindranwale's men how to use modern weapons, most of them smuggled across the border from Pakistan. Kirpekar had not seen Shabeg Singh for thirteen years, but he had once been a popular figure with the press as well as a national hero.}} Two charge sheets in an anti-corruption court were brought against him in Lucknow by India's Central Bureau of Investigation. Singh sought redress in civil courts, and was acquitted of all charges on February 13, 1984.{{cite book |last1=Sachchidanand |first1=Sinha |title=Army Action in Punjab: Prelude and Aftermath |last2=Singh |first2=Jasvir |last3=Sunil |last4=Reddy |first4=G.K C |author-link4=G. K. C. Reddy |last5=Samata Era editorial team |date=1984 |publisher=G.K.C. Reddy for Samata Era Publication |location=New Delhi |page=56 |language=en |chapter=6: Role of the Media and Opposition Parties |quote=Shuhbeg Singh was described as the one who was dismissed from the Army on corruption charges. But it was unfair not to inform that he was acquitted by a special court on February 13, 1984 of the charges against him in both cases filed by the CBI. The media was only indulging in unjustified character assassination of Bhindranwala, Shuhbeg Singh and others (that were corrupt, smugglers, robbers, thieves, rapists) in order to justify the Army action. |access-date=22 August 2019 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pdMtAAAAMAAJ&q=corruption+charges&pg=PA56}}

{{Main|Operation Blue Star}}

During the Asian Games in 1982; Shabeg Singh, Lt. Gen. Jagjit Singh Aurora, Lt. Gen. Harbaksh Singh, Parkash Singh Badal and Air Marshal Arjan Singh were all forced to leave the premises of the complex as they were Sikhs, in fact all Sikhs but a few were allowed to remain in the complex.{{Cite web |title=New worry for govt as high-ranking Sikh ex-servicemen get involved in Akali agitation |url=https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/indiascope/story/19831115-new-worry-for-govt-as-high-ranking-sikh-ex-servicemen-get-involved-in-akali-agitation-771197-2013-07-16 |access-date=2023-05-24 |website=India Today |language=en}}

Shabeg Singh was mentioned in a speech by Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale while highlighting injustices to various Sikhs in 1983. He participated in the Amritsar Rally in the Golden Rail Morcha where over 10,000 ex-servicemen participated.

He joined Sikh militants, where he served as Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale's military adviser. Singh had said that he had joined Bhindranwale due to the alleged humiliation he had received, which included being stripped of his pension.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}} Counter Intelligence reports had reported that three leaders of the Khalistan movement were Major General Shabeg Singh, Balbir Singh Sandhu and Amrik Singh.{{cite book |last1=Kiessling |first1=Hein G. |title=Faith, Unity, Discipline: The Inter-Service-Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan |year=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=155–156 |isbn=978-1-84904-863-7}} In December 1983, the Sikh political party Akali Dal's President Harchand Singh Longowal had invited Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale to take up residence in the Golden Temple complex.{{cite book |author=Khushwant Singh |year=2004 |orig-year=First published 1966 |title=A History of the Sikhs |publisher=Oxford University Press |volume=II |edition=2nd |page=337 |isbn=978-0-691-00804-2}} Singh and his military expertise is credited with the creation of effective defences of the temple complex that made the possibility of a commando operation on foot impossible.{{cite news |last1=Tully |first1=Mark |date=3 June 2014 |title=Wounds heal but another time bomb ticks away |work=The Times of India |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-times/deep-focus/Wounds-heal-but-another-time-bomb-ticks-away/articleshow/35871055.cms |access-date=15 June 2018}} He organised the Sikh forces present at the Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar in June 1984. Indian government forces launched Operation Blue Star in the same month.{{cite web |title=Interview Lt Gen PC Katoch |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxitMTQK-GE?t=8m10s |url-status=live |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/AxitMTQK-GE |archive-date=2021-12-21 |access-date=11 June 2018 |publisher=Operation Blue Star - The Untold Story by Kanwar Sandhu - 4}}{{cbignore}} Four weeks before Operation Blue Star, Shabeg Singh had an interview with Telegraph Calcutta near Shahid Ganj Baba Deep Singh outside the Golden Temple.

{{blockquote|As far as my relations with Sant Jarnail Singh are concerned, there is nothing to suspect. I've told you that I am a patriot. Probably in a finer mould than the Prime Minister herself. I have met Bhindranwale. There is no doubt of it and I also feel that there is a strong touch of spiritualism in this person. He is a man who stands by the truth. The Government is deliberately terming him a traitor because his brand of politics probably doesn't suit them.|author=Telegraph Calcutta, May 16, 1984|title=Interview of Major General Suhbeg Singh}}At the later stages of the operation, Singh was killed in firing between the Akal Takht and Darshani Ḍeorhi. The amount of Indian casualties his defences incurred are debated, but considered to be higher than Indian Army officials initially expected before the operation.{{Cite book |last=Deora |first=Man Singh |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EnNuAAAAMAAJ&q=rajiv+gandhi+nagpur+operation+blue+star+700 |title=Aftermath of Operation Bluestar |date=1992 |publisher=Anmol Publications |isbn=978-81-7041-645-6 |language=en}} His body was later found and identified when the operation was over. Singh was cremated according to Sikh rites and with full military honours.{{cite book |last1=Jaijee |first1=Inderjit Singh |title=Politics of Genocide: Punjab, 1984-1994 |date=1995 |publisher=Baba Publishers |isbn=978-1583672129 |page=229 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2-qGAAAAMAAJ&q=shabeg+singh+acquitted |access-date=22 August 2019 |language=en |quote=Because of his acquittal and his distinguished service, the highly decorated Shabeg Singh was cremated with military honours. |chapter=9: INFORMATION / COMMUNICATION}}{{cite journal |last1=Chopra |first1=Radhika |title=Commemorating Hurt: Memorializing Operation Bluestar |journal=Sikh Formations |volume=6 |issue=2 |year=2010 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |pages=119–152 |quote=Bajwa said the Army officers agreed to cremate the bodies of Sant Bhindranwale, Shabeg Singh, Baba Thara Singh and Bhai Amrik Singh according to Sikh rites at his personal request while the rest of the bodies (more than 800) were cremated en masse. |doi=10.1080/17448727.2010.530509 |s2cid=144432496}}

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Category:People of the Bangladesh Liberation War

Category:Military personnel from Punjab, India

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Category:1925 births

Category:1984 deaths

Category:People from Punjab Province (British India)