A Pakistani court has dismissed a plea to rename a chowk in Lahore after Bhagat Singh, citing a retired military officer's claim that the freedom fighter was not a revolutionary but a "criminal". The Lahore High Court upheld the decision of the local corporation, which had scrapped the plan to rename Shadman Chowk and place a statue of Singh there.
Giving in to the pressure from hardline groups like the Jamaat-ud-Dawah and a section of local residents, Pakistani authorities have put on hold a move to rename a roundabout in Lahore after freedom fighter Bhagat Singh.
A Pakistani government committee has endorsed the renaming of a roundabout in Lahore after freedom fighter Bhagat Singh despite stiff opposition from extremist groups like the Jamaat-ud-Dawah.
Pakistani rights groups and members of civil society have demanded that the place in Lahore where freedom fighter Bhagat Singh was hanged should be named after him to commemorate his role in the movement for the independence of the subcontinent.
'In Pakistan there has been no problem about the installation of the statues of these men, unlike the Jinnah portrait or other controversies that seem to be present in India these days quite regularly,' says Aakar Patel.
Bhagat Singh's name was not mentioned in the first information report for the murder of a British police officer in Lahore in 1928, the Lahore police have found, in a major boost to prove the legendary freedom fighter's innocence in the case 83 years after his execution.