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It was
late Twenties when the whole country was agitated over the Police
assault on Lala Lajpat Rai while leading an anti-Simon procession in
Lahore. The injuries claimed one of the stalwarts of Indian politics
as its victim.
The revolutionaries of Northwest took the vow of avenging the death
while watching the funeral flames devouring the mortal remains of
the Lion of Punjab, on the 17th December 1928, the Asst.
Commissioner of Police, Saunders, was done to death in broad day
light. A Conspiracy case soon followed and Sukhdev found his place
as one of the principal accused. It was during this case that Jatin
Das sacrificed his life for the vindication of the political
prisoners by restoring to a hunger strike, which cost him life but
earned him the epithet of ‘McSwiney of India’.
Born at Lyalpur, Sukhdev had his training in the revolutionary
movement along with Chandra Shekhar Azad and Bhagat Singh. He had
set up a small factory at Lahore for the manufacture of bomb and was
arrested there. In the trial that followed he had equal, honor with
Bhagat Singh and Rajguru in receiving capital punishment. On the
20th March, 1931, the ‘Three Musketeers’ went up the gallows inside
the Lahore Central Jail. |
