Farmer martyred at Lahore in 1745
Bhai Taru Singh
A Sandhu farmer of Puhla who sent his savings to Sikhs in hiding, Bhai Taru Singh was betrayed to Zakariya Khan and was martyred at Lahore in 1745 when he refused to accept Islam.
Life
The Prachin Panth Prakash is the main source for his story. He farmed at Puhla, in what is now Amritsar district, paid his revenue and lived frugally with his mother and sister, passing on what they saved. The informer Harbhagat Niranjania named him to the governor.[EoS]
Martyrdom
Brought before Zakariya Khan after torture, he answered with the Sikh greeting and said Sikhs took nothing from the government. Offered Islam or death, he chose death and his scalp was scraped off on 1 July 1745. The Encyclopaedia says he was barely 25. A shahidganj was later raised outside Delhi Gate in Lahore, and the site was disputed in the 1930s.[EoS][EoS]
Images
A large pencil drawing from the Punjab with some identifying inscriptions in Persian. It shows the removal of Bhai Taru Singh's scalp in the foreground and the martyrdom of Mehtab Singh in the background. It was made long after 1745, so it is an artist's imagining.
Unknown, 19th century. Public domain. Source
