Bhagat Singh’s pistol found in BSF’s Indore museum

US-made Colt was on display along with other weapons, but there was no mention of its history

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Jupinderjit Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 8

Believed to be “missing” for years, the pistol used by Shaheed Bhagat Singh to kill Assistant Police Superintendent John Saunders in Lahore on December 17,1928,  has been found at the BSF’s Central School of Weapons and Tactics (CSWT) museum at Indore where it had been on display without any mention of its history.

Historians had been raising questions about the pistol. The Tribune, that recently carried a series of reports on the martyr’s court case files and the “missing” pistol and other exhibits, had found that the pistol was in possession of the Punjab Police Academy, Phillaur, till October 1969.

The IG and Commandant, Pankaj, CSWT, today called up The Tribune, informing that the number of the pistol, an automatic .32 bore US-made Colt  (butt number 460-m and body number 168896)  “match with a pistol in our records.” The Tribune had   sent him details of the pistol accessed from the files of the Phillaur academy.

“We have found it. The numbers sent match with those on the pistol. It will now be displayed with the martyr’s name,” the IG said excitedly.

The Tribune had reported two days ago that the pistol was last seen at the Phillaur academy on October 7, 1969, when it was moved, along with seven other weapons, to the CSWT, Indore. On the same day 39 years ago, a special tribunal of three judges had delivered the death sentence to Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev.

The pen with which one of the judges had signed the death sentence was shifted from the Police Academy to the Punjab Cultural Department and subsequently to the museum in Bhagat Singh’s memory at his native village Khatkar Kalan. But his pistol could not be traced.

Meanwhile, the Punjab Congress said, “It is not just just a weapon. It’s a symbol of our fight against oppressive (British) rule. We will bring the martyr’s pistol back to Punjab.”

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Cong to seek copies of martyr’s files from Pak 

Jalandhar: Congress Legislature Party chief Charanjit Singh Channi on Tuesday promised to seek copies of the files pertaining to Shaheed Bhagat Singh from Pakistan if his party comes to power in the state. Paying tributes to the martyr at Khatkar Kalan village (Nawanshahr) on the second day of his Jawani Sambhal Yatra, Channi said some of the files related to the trial of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were in the archives of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. “However, most of the record has come out through individual efforts. The researchers, not the governments, have mainly compiled his writings.” TNS