Shaheed Diwas: Remembering young men who sacrificed their lives for nation

Our country celebrates Martyrs’ Day on 23 March, every year to commemorate the ultimate sacrifice of Bhagat Singh, Shivram Rajguru and Sukhdev Thapar who were hanged to death by the British in the Lahore Conspiracy Case.

When Lala Lajpat Rai, one of the key figures in the Indian freedom struggle, was killed by the police chief in 1928, Bhagat Singh and his allies came up with a plot to assassinate him. Lala Lajpat Rai, who was also known as “Punjab Kesri,” had organised a peaceful procession on 8 October, 1928 to protest the entrance of the Simon Commission’s members.

James Scott, the superintendent of police, gave orders to his officers to “lathi-charge” the demonstrators in an effort to halt the march. Lajpat Rai was targeted by the police, who struck him in the chest, leaving him with a fatal injury.

Bhagat Singh and his allies planned to assassinate Scott in an effort to exact revenge and seek justice for the death of Punjab Kesri. Instead, JP Saunders, a subordinate police officer, was killed due to a case of mistaken identity, and Bhagat Singh fled to Lahore. In an act of disobedience against the Defense of India Act’s execution, he and a buddy set off a bomb outside Delhi’s Central Legislative Assembly in 1929. After that, they surrendered.

To seek retribution and exact revenge for Punjab’s murder On 18 April, 1929, outside Delhi’s Central Assembly Hall, Singh and his comrade Batukeshwar Dutt detonated bombs while yelling “Inquilab Zindabad!” a year after the mistaken shooting. He made no attempt to resist attempts to have him arrested at this point. “Inquilab Zindabad,” which the pair continued to shout throughout, quickly became the rallying cry of India’s military battle for independence.