A proposal to rename Shadman Chowk in Lahore after Bhagat Singh and install a statue in his honor has been scrapped following the opinion of a retired military official, the district government of Lahore has informed the high court.
In a written response submitted to the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday, Assistant Advocate General Asghar Leghari presented serious allegations against the Indian freedom fighter. “A proposed plan of the city district government Lahore to name Shadman Chowk after Bhagat Singh and place his statue there has been scrapped in light of an observation submitted by Commodore (retd.) Tariq Majeed,” the Metropolitan Corporation of Lahore stated in its reply to a contempt petition filed by Imtiaz Rasheed Qureshi, Chairman of the Bhagat Singh Memorial Foundation Pakistan.
Majeed, who was part of a committee tasked with renaming the chowk, reportedly described Singh as “not a revolutionary but a criminal, in today’s terms he was a terrorist, he killed a British police officer, and for this crime, he was hanged along with two accomplices.” He recommended that Shadman Chowk should not be renamed after Bhagat Singh, and his statue should not be installed there.
The report also claimed that Singh was influenced by “religious leaders hostile to Muslims” and accused the Bhagat Singh Foundation of working “against Islamic ideology and Pakistani culture,” suggesting that it should be banned. “Don’t the officials of the foundation, who call themselves Muslims, know that it is not acceptable to name a place after an atheist in Pakistan and that Islam prohibits human statues?” the report questioned.
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In response, Qureshi told PTI on Sunday that Bhagat Singh had been widely recognized as a great revolutionary, freedom fighter, and martyr. “I will send a legal notice to retired Commodore Majeed for levelling serious allegations against the Bhagat Singh Foundation and contest his stance on Bhagat Singh,” he said.
Qureshi has named the district government, DC Lahore, Chief Secretary Punjab, and the Administrator of the City District Government as parties in a contempt of court petition, filed through Advocate Khalid Zaman Khan Kakar. The petition claims that LHC Justice Shahid Jamil Khan had directed the authorities on September 5, 2018, to take steps to rename Shadman Chowk after Bhagat Singh, but the court order has yet to be implemented.
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