Final Hours Of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Before Being Hanged
Iconic freedom fighter Bhagat Singh was hanged on March 23, 1931 along with his legendary comrades Rajguru and Sukh Dev. All three of him embraced the gallows with a spirit of unrivalled sacrifice for their motherland in the history of Indian freedom struggle. Bhagat Singh was to be hanged on march 24, 1931, but his execution was advanced by more than eleven hours due to the popular rising sentiment in favour of the brave sons of India. His body was secretly cremated on the banks of sutlej. In his memoirs, a friend of Bhagat recounted that a Muslim barber on his daily rounds in the prison told them (other prisoners) that Bhagat Singh himself told him that he would be hanged that day.
When one of the prisoners asked the jail warden the next morning about how Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were at the time of execution, he sobbed as he narrated that in all his years in as a prison official, he had overseen many hangings but had not come across such brave young men who embraced death with such a cheerful face.
Bhagat Singh's lawyer, Pran Nath Mehta was permitted to meet him. Mehta recalled that in their last meeting he saw the great freedom fighter pacing up and down in his small cell which could barely hold him. Though Bhagat Singh was prevailed upon by a team of officers to seek pardon from the British government, he rejected the idea with contempt.
As the time for his execution approached, Bhagat Singh was called but he was engrossed in reading a book on Vladimar Lenin. He started reading faster when he was asked to get ready and told the prison official to wait for a while because one revolutionary (lenin) was speaking to another. The three of them were taken out of their cells and as they walked, they shouted Inquilab Zindabad. Soon, the cry resonated through the prison as others joined the trio in the sloganeering. Bhagat Singh and his companions hugged each other for the last time as they shouted 'down with the British empire'. The hangman, Massih pulled the lever sending Bhagat Singh to martyrdom first. He was followed by Rajguru and Sukhdev.
The bodies were cremated outside Gandasinghwala village in the night and were later thrown in River Sutlej.
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