The Story of a Rebel General

Major General Shabeg Singh

Shabeg Singh at Indian Military Academy

Distinguished Army Career

Shabeg Singh in uniform

Major General Shabeg Singh, AVSM, PVSM

Shabeg Singh in disguise with Muktibahini Leader

Muktibahini with Indian Army

Sikh soldiers of Indian Army in Bangla Rescue Operation

Shabeg Singh at Pakistan Surrender Ceremony

Painting by a Bangladesh Army officer

False Charges of Corruption

General TN Raina (on left)

Major General Shabeg Singh (Retired)

The Rebel General

Shabeg Singh as Rebel Sikh Leader

Operation Blue Star

Young Sikh Militants in Golden Temple Complex

Indian Army at Golden temple

Sikh defense positions

Major General Shabeg Singh AVSM and PVSM (1925-1984), was a distinguished Indian Army officer noted for his service in training of Mukti Bahini volunteers during the Bangladesh Liberation War.By nature Gen Shabeg Singh was a voracious reader, he had read about every military campaign and knew the biography of every military general of consequence. He had a natural flair for history and loved reading. He could fluently speak Punjabi, Persian, Urdu, Bangla, Gorkhali besides English and Hindi. He had a reputation of being fearless officer and one who did not tolerate any nonsense. People either loved him or dreaded him because of his frank and forthright approach.Singh was an instructor in the Military Academy at Dehra Dun, and held a number of staff appointments in various ranks. During the course of his service in the Indian army, Shaheg Singh fought in every war that India participated in - WWII, 1947 Kashmir invasion, 1962 Indo-China War, 1965 Indo-Pak War, and 1971 Indo-Pak War.In 1942, an officers selection team visiting Lahore colleges recruited Singh to the Indian Army officers cadre. After training in the Indian Military Academy, he was commissioned in theas a Second Lieutenant. Within a few days the Regiment moved to Burma and joined the war against the Japanese. In 1945 when the WWII ended, he was in Malaya with his unit. After partition, when reorganization of the regiments took place, he joined theas a Paratrooper. He was posted in theParachute Regiment in which he remained till 1959.In 1947, he was at Naushera in Jammu and Kashmir fighting against the Afghan tribals supported by Pakistan Army. While at Staff College, in addition to the academic work, he set a record in winning three, point to point and five flat races on horse back a record never equaled. Because of his knowledge of military science and excellent grasp of military operations he was appointed a Brigade Major after the staff course. As Brigade Major of- a crack formation, he felt most at home when the formation was out on military exercises.In 1962 during the India-China war, he was in North East Frontier Agency as a Lt Col inwhere he was GSO-J (Intelligence).In the 1965 operations against Pakistan, he was in the Haji Pir Sector in Jammu and Kashmir, commanding a battalion of Gorkha troops. He commandedwith distinction and was mentioned in dispatches for the capture of important enemy positions on the Haji Pir front on the doorsteps to Lahore.In 1971, when the political turmoil in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) started and the Bengalis declared their intentions to separate, the Yahya Khan Govt cracked down on the Bengalis, forcing them to flee to neighboring Indian States. India decided to intervene and in 1971 started the clandestine insurgency operations in East Pakistan. The GOC of Indian Army, Lt. General Jagjit Singh Aurora specially selected Shabeg Singh, then a brigadier, and made him in-charge ofwith lead Quarters at Aggartala. He was given the responsibility of planning, organizing and directing insurgency operations in the whole of Central and East Bangladesh. Under his command were placed all the Bangladesh officers that had deserted from the Pakistan Army. These included Col Osmani, as adviser, Maj Zia-Ur-Rehman and Mohammad Mustaq. General Zia Ur Rehman later became the President of Bangladesh while Mustaq Mohammed became Bangladesh army chief.General Shabeg Singh cut off his hair in 1971 and trainedwhich was highly successful. (This act alone proves his commitment to India) He willingly cut off his hair so that he could move around with Mukti Bahini guerrillas while training them.Starting from about January to October 1971, the insurgency operations gradually grew to such intensity that by the time war started, the Pakistan army in East Bengal had completely lost their will to resist. The Indian Govt did not want the world to know that the Indian Army was training and directing the Bengali insurgents so all activities were very secret. Shabeg was so thoroughly involved in these clandestine operations that for five months from December 70 to April 71, his family had no news about his whereabouts. They believed he was till in Nagaland and wondered why he did not write because he had always been regular in writing home to his wife. In April 1970, the first letter was received from the Civilian address of a Merchant shop in Aggartala and his name was written as S. Baigh, such was the nature of secrecy maintained of the Army's involvement in the insurgency movement. The wife was quite confused and the family wondered what was going on because the letter was very brief and just said, "don't worry I am ok."Meanwhile as the Mukti Bahini got bolder, the Pak Army in the East began to grow demoralized due to the onslaught. It got so widely dispersed in trying to contain the 'Mukti Bahini' that when the Indian Army launched its operations in Nov. 1971 they were able to walk through to Dacca, virtually unopposed. Over one hundred thousand enemy troops with the complete general staff surrendered, leading to the emergence of Bangladesh. The credit of this great achievement was mainly due to the efforts of Shabeg Singh, who spent day and night organizing, motivating and training young Bengali youth to fight for their land. Such was the motivation of a Bengali youth force known as Mukti Bahini and so perfect the direction of their operation that no senior administrative officer felt safe in Bengal. Guerrilla strikes were launched on five star hotels and on ships in Chittagong harbour to show the extent of power which the Mukti Bahini wielded. Strategic bridges were destroyed, factories closed and movement within Bangladesh restricted resulting in a paralysis of the economy.No doubt it was a cakewalk for the Indian Army when the actual operations were launched. The Indian government promoted Shabeg Singh to the post of Major General and awarded him thein recognition of his services. He had earlier been awarded thealso.After the Indo-Pak war, all the Pakistani POWs were put under his jurisdiction and senior General Staff were kept at Jabalpur which was also the HQs of MP, Bihar and Orissa area. Why was a successful field operations leader not given the command of a Division? Here was a field commander with so much war experience-denied command of a combat formation. Why so? Was this done to deny him promotion when his name came up.While he was posted as GOC of the UP Area HQs in whose jurisdiction the Kumaon Regimental Center is placed, it was alleged that the Commander of the Kumaon Military Farm had given a large sum money to the Chief,to meet expenses for his daughter's marriage. When this information was brought to the notice of the General Office Commanding, Shabeg Singh; he told Gen Raina about the findings of the Court of Inquiry and requested the chief to return the amount as the Military farm of the Kumaon Regiment.. General TN Raina went on to become the Army Chief and the rest is history.Soon after that the Army instituted a court of inquiry against Gen Shabeg Singh which dragged on for one year till the date of his retirement on May, 1 1976.. It was a tradition for the senior officers to be given an honorary plaque by the regimental officers. However, in the case of Gen Shabeg it became an offense. Some other flimsy charges were also made like allowing his official house land to be used for cultivation purposes and permitting sale of goods purchased from customs in the area HQs Canteen.The vindictiveness of the Army Chief was made obvious, whenthe hero of Mukti Bahini, a highly decorated general with PVSM & AVSM, who had been actively involved in every operation that Indian Army fought since his joining service and who spent the major portion of his life in field areas separated from the cost of his wife's health and the education of his children,Major General Shabeg Singh was honorable acquitted of all charges by Supreme Court but it came sadly after his death in the hands of his own army at Operation Blue Star. Such was the treatment meted out to a brave soldier and an outstanding General, a leader of men, whom the Indian government and media labelled as 'disgruntled' and 'frustrated' officer.General Shabeg Singh settled in Chandigarh and at around 1978-79 he became active in Akali politics. He firmly believed that he was not guilty but was victimized because of his religion. He had found spiritual succor and a new soldierly cause with Bhindranwale, although now in what he saw as the service of his faith, not his republic. Soon he quit Akali politics and aligned himself with Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale in the Dharam-Yudh Movement.On June 1984, Indira Gandhi addressed the nation on Government controlled TV station - Doordarshan and announced the military action against the Sikhs in Golden Temple Complex. More than 70,000 troops had been called to Punjab, tanks, APCs and all. Vijayanta tanks had been lined up along the final approaches of the Golden Temple much before the first shots were exchanged between the army and the militants. The media was cleared out even before the militants, all telephone lines cut and the state put under not curfew but martial law.Each of the generals involved,, Western Army Command chief of staffand his chief,(later assassinated by revenge-seeking Sikh gunmen while driving his Maruti 800 after retiring in Pune), later admitted to this miscalculation to some extent. There was a firm belief that Bhindranwale would not fight, he would surrender or try to escape. In fact, one of the generals pointed at some of his black-dungareed commandos, who were getting kitted out and briefed, and said,The first assault by the poor commandos ran into trouble. This set of audacious generals had overlooked the fact that they weren’t up against some armed rebels but a small army of faithfuls led by someone just like them.Former Major General Shabeg Singh had served with each one of those serving. He had personally trained ans supervised the Sikh defenses at the Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) in Amritsar.Indian army had entered the Golden Temple on the martyrdom day of the Fifth Guru who created Golden Temple. Being an Army General he must have been very well aware of the odd against him. He had less than 200 young Khalsa youth to help him. Though these were no ordinary youth. They were highly motivated, dedicated to the cause and each one resolved to fight to the last when the time came Yet he knew that with this small band, and hardly any resources with which to resist the might of the Indian Army, he might surely be overwhelmed.On June 3 at 9:30 a.m. Punjab, Amritsar was sealed off and no movement of people allowed into the Golden Temple or out of it. At 8:30 a.m. At Harmandir Sahib, thousands of pilgrims who had come for the martyrdom day of Guru Arjan Dev ji, could not leave and were trapped, Many thousands would lose their lives in the massacre that was about to be unleashed by the divisive forces.Shabeg wasn’t foolhardy enough to think he would win. His tactic was to optimize his resources, snipers behind any hiding place, every room along the Parikrama manned by a gunman or two so any probing patrols would be cut down, others sprinting up and down the staircases linking just the two floors of the buildings and their parapets. His idea was to inflict as many casualties as possible and thereby delay the inevitable so that the Sikhs from the villages had enough time to organize mobs to converge on Amritsar and make further army operations impossible, unless Indira Gandhi was willing to inflict scores of Jallianwala Baghs in Punjab. It was a good approach that succeeded tactically.