Pakistan refuses to name chowk after Bhagat Singh

Authorities do not want to annoy the religious right

ISLAMABAD: Groaning under pressure from the religious clergy in Pakistan, government authorities have turned down the demand of an Indian NGO to name Shadman Chowk in Lahore after freedom fighter Bhagat Singh, who was sent to the gallows at the same roundabout that earlier houses Kot Lakhpat Jail. Bhagat was hanged to death on March 23, 1931 when he was 23.

To a query, official sources said the authorities did not want to annoy the religious clergy which had already been pressing the former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi to name the Shadman Chowk after Ghazi Ilmuddin Shaheed who had assassinated a Hindu named Rajpal in 1929, who had written and published an insulting and abusive treatise concerning the Prophet Mohammad. Therefore, it was decided at the highest government level not to rename the Shadman Chowk either after Bhagat Singh Chowk or Ghazi Ilmuddin Chowk.

According to the sources, the director of the Institute of Peace Studies, Saeeda Diep, had requested President General Musharraf in September on the eve of the 100th birth anniversary of Bhagat Singh that the Shadman Chowk be named after him in recognition of his struggle for the cause of freedom against the British Raj.

In a letter, Saeeda had stated Bhagat was a revolutionary freedom fighter who launched struggle against the imperialist powers which had deprived the people of the sub-continent of their basic rights. She asserted that Bhagat was one of the youngest freedom movement leaders who picked up arms against the British Raj and fought for the equal rights to citizens without discrimination of religion or race.

While describing Bhagat as the Che Guevara of the subcontinent, Saeeda Diep had demanded the renaming of the Shadman Chowk as Bhagat Singh Chowk. However, the sources in Islamabad have disclosed that her demand has already been turned down after the failure of the concerned government officials to reach a consensus on the same.