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Sukhwinder declared a martyr of
the Sikh community
WSN Network
 LUDHIANA: Ten
years ago, his son was born in
India
while he himself had immigrated to
Britain. In ten
years, he was unable to afford a trip home. And when he came, he
still could not meet his son. In fact, he had hardly made it home.
His body did.
Ten-year-old
Gurinder Singh will forever fight with memories of his father in a
box. And forever will he be proud of Sukhwinder Singh, proud of the
fact that his father died a hero's death. Sukhvinder was murdered by
two muggers on January 8 when he chased and confronted two youth
near East
London's
Barking station when they mugged a young woman.
One of them
stabbed Sukhwinder, and he died at
London's
Royal Hospital. He was termed a "hero" by London's Metropolitan
Police.
When his body
was brought to his ancestral village, Dholanwal, near Khanna in
Ludhiana district, late last Wednesday night, it was the first time
Gurinder saw him.
Sukhwinder -
Bittu to family and friends - had saved just about enough for a trip
home to see his parents, his wife Sandeep Kaur and his son. He had
planned the trip in June this year. Instead, Sukhwinder's father
Phakkar Singh travelled nearly 8,000 km to London to get back the
body of his braveheart son. Phakkar said it was in the blood of
every Sikh to help people in distress.
This was a
tragic death of a man who was killed for attempting to stop others
committing crime. The Sikh community in
Britain
arranged to send Sukhwinder's body back to
India.
Last Friday, the
Sikh community bestowed on him the honour “Sikh Quom da Shaheed”
when Jathedar of Sikhs’ highest temporal seat, the Akal Takht,
declared him as such. It was also decided that Sukhwinder’s
portrait would be put up in the Sikh museum located inside the
Golden Temple complex in Amritsar. A day earlier, hundreds had
turned up at the braveheart’s native village to attend his
cremation.
Nirmal Singh
Gill, who represents the Longbridge ward in the Barking and Dagenham
Council, said: "He was a very nice young man. He used to go to the
gurdwara every evening. He would help anybody, so it doesn't
surprise me that he was trying to help a woman. He was very well
known in the Sikh community and everyone is very shocked. It's a
very big loss to everyone, both here and in India."
A tribute page
on social networking site Facebook already has over 24,000 followers
of Sukhwinder. Most of them are seeking severe punishment for his
killers.
The attack came
just weeks after Britain's Home Office released figures stating that
nearly 375,000 people were mugged in England and Wales in 2009. The
count made it one incident every 90 seconds.
3
February 2010
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