01The night of 23 March 1931
Bhagat Singh, Shivaram Rajguru and Sukhdev Thapar were hanged in Lahore Central Jail on the evening of 23 March 1931, earlier than the hour fixed, for the authorities feared the crowds outside. That night the bodies were taken out by a back way and driven to the Sutlej bank near Hussainiwala, where they were burnt hurriedly with kerosene and the remains thrown into the river. Villagers and relatives who reached the spot gathered what they could. The place became a pilgrimage at once. Batukeshwar Dutt, who had thrown the bombs in the Central Assembly with Bhagat Singh, asked to be cremated beside them and was, in 1965; Bhagat Singh’s mother Vidyawati was cremated here too.
02Won back by treaty
The Radcliffe line of 1947 left the cremation ground on the Pakistani side. Under the border agreements of 1959–60 India took it back on 17 January 1961, giving twelve villages near the Sulemanki headworks in exchange. A memorial with statues of the three was raised on the spot. In the 1971 war Pakistani troops overran Hussainiwala and the memorial was damaged; it was later restored. On 23 March each year, Shaheedi Divas, a fair is held here and the Punjab government marks the day. Nearby is the Hussainiwala border post, where a flag-lowering ceremony has been held every evening since 1970.
The life of this place
- 23 March 1931The bodies of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev are burnt here in secret.
- August 1947The site falls on the Pakistani side of the new border.
- 17 January 1961India takes the site back in exchange for twelve villages.
- 1965Batukeshwar Dutt is cremated beside his comrades.
- December 1971Pakistani forces overrun Hussainiwala; the memorial is damaged and later restored.
About 10 km from Firozpur; the 23 March fair and the evening border ceremony can be seen on the same trip.
