In the neighboring country of Pakistan, people in Lahore are at loggerheads over the name of Shaheed Bhagat Singh.
A Lahore-based non-profit foundation on Tuesday criticized the government for renaming Shadman Chowk after freedom fighter Bhagat Singh and scrapping plans to install his statue there on the recommendation of a retired Pakistani military officer.
The Lahore Metropolitan Corporation on Friday, in response to a contempt petition filed in the Lahore High Court by Imtiaz Rashid Qureshi, Chairman of ‘Bhagat Singh Memorial Foundation Pakistan’, said that the proposed renaming of Shadman Chowk after Bhagat Singh and installation of his statue there The plan has been cancelled.
Lahore Metropolitan Corporation said that the plan was canceled in the light of a report submitted by Commodore (retd) Tariq Majeed.
It said Majeed, who was part of a committee formed by the government to name Shadman Chowk after Singh, claimed in his comments that “Singh was not a revolutionary but a criminal; in today’s context he is a terrorist.” He had murdered a British police officer and for this crime he was sentenced to death along with two accomplices.
Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, Foundation Chairman Qureshi said Majeed was quoted as saying by Pakistan’s founder MA Jinnah’s speech praising revolutionary Bhagat Singh in the Central Assembly before calling him a ‘criminal and terrorist’. Must remember. Qureshi said, “Jinnah not only admired the sacrificial personality of Bhagat Singh and his comrades, but also stood in their support with the strongest intentions and questioned the British law and order and principles.”
He termed the government report on Singh as ‘ridiculous and a distortion of history’ which presented the Islamic viewpoint in a distorted manner. He said, “Bhagat Singh was a revolutionary born on the soil of Pakistan and we cannot allow the history of our country to be destroyed for pseudo-political purposes.”
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