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.
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.
'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.