Shaheed Bhoota Singh Remembered In

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WAHEGURU JI KA KHALSA WAHEGURU JI KI FATEH

I couldnt see the full film on Alpha etc Panjabi on sunday which showed the film on the true life story of Shaheed Boota Singh.

Could ne 1 tell me the full story of what happened about Boota Singh and his wife (the muslim sister).

And why was he remembered in the Lahore Mosque!

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[Singh132]

Boota Singh was in his 40s or so and was not married.

During the 1947 Partition riots, a Muslim girl was separated from the other refugees and chased by thugs into a village. Boota Singh lived there and she ran to him and begged him to save her. He paid the thugs all his money and bought her.

The Muslim girl's name was Zainab and she was around 16 years old.

After some time, Boota Singh married Zainab and they had a daughter, Tanveer.

After 1947, both Pakistan and Hindustan traded kidnapped women and someone told about Zainab. She was taken away and returned to her family in Pakistan. I believe she didn't want to go. In Pakistan she was married to her cousin.

Buta Singh went to Delhi, converted to Islam and asked to go to Pakistan. He was turned down a number of times but eventually succeeded.

In Pakistan he approached the courts to get his wife back. A judge was sympathetic and ordered her family to bring her to the court and see what she wanted. In court, Buta Singh stood and the judge asked if she recognised him, she said she did. The judge asked if she wanted to go with him, she recluctantly, under pressure from her family, said no. Buta Singh then said something along the lines of "my life is finished, at least take your daughter". The judge then asked if she wanted her daughter, and again, she said no but cried at saying this.

Buta Singh left and went to the dargah of some Sufi and the next morning, he jumped in front of a train along with his daughter. Miraculously, his daughter was not killed and was adopted by a family in Pakistan and was married off later to a Pakistani man in the Middle East.

In my opinion, Boota is not a hero. He first shouldn't have married the teenager then he certainly shouldn't have become a Muslim for the sake of a girl and finally, he was stupid to jump in front of a train and that too with his small daughter.

He was buried in Pakistan but Zenab's family actually dug up and descrated his grave. Some Pakistanis who liked this love story re-buried him and posted guards at the grave.

I read this story a few years ago in a book called Freedom at Midnight. This was also made into a Gurdas Mann movie but it was quite unrealistic and glosses over the controversial parts.