Firozpur district
Firozpur district, also known as Ferozepur district, is one of the twenty-three districts in the state of Punjab, India. Firozpur district comprises an area of .
Firozpur (Ferozepur) is the capital city of the district. It is situated inside ...
in
Punjab
Punjab (; Punjabi Language, Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also Romanization, romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the I ...
state, India. It lies near the bank of the
Sutlej
The Sutlej or Satluj River () is the longest of the five rivers that flow through the historic crossroads region of Punjab in northern India and Pakistan. The Sutlej River is also known as ''Satadru''. It is the easternmost tributary of the In ...
river. The village is on the border with
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
, opposite the Pakistani village of
Ganda Singh Wala
Ganda Singh Wala (Punjabi/ ur, ) is a village, just 58 km from Lahore City in Kasur District in the Punjab, Pakistan. Until 1986, it served as the main border crossing between Pakistan and India. The Sutlej River flows by Ganda Singh Wala, and ...
. It is a border crossing between India and Pakistan that is currently closed, however a daily joint beating retreat border ceremony is held by the two nations.
It is 10km northwest of district headquarters
Firozpur
Firozpur, also known as Ferozepur, is a city on the banks of the Sutlej River in Firozpur District, Punjab, India. After the partition of India in 1947, it became a border town on the India–Pakistan border with memorials to soldiers who die ...
, 100km south of
Amritsar
Amritsar (), historically also known as Rāmdāspur and colloquially as ''Ambarsar'', is the second largest city in the Indian state of Punjab, after Ludhiana. It is a major cultural, transportation and economic centre, located in the Majha ...
, 135km west of
Ludhiana
Ludhiana ( ) is the most populous and the largest city in the Indian state of Punjab. The city has an estimated population of 1,618,879 2011 census and distributed over , making Ludhiana the most densely populated urban centre in the state. I ...
, 120km northwest of
Bathinda
Bathinda is a city and municipal corporation in Punjab, India. The city is the administrative headquarters of Bathinda District. It is located in northwestern India in the Malwa Region, west of the capital city of Chandigarh and is the fifth l ...
, 235km west of state capital
Chandigarh
Chandigarh () is a planned city in India. Chandigarh is bordered by the state of Punjab to the west and the south, and by the state of Haryana to the east. It constitutes the bulk of the Chandigarh Capital Region or Greater Chandigarh, which al ...
, 265km northwest from Hisar, and 400km northwest from
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
.
Etymology
The village is named after the
Muslim
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
Peer
Peer may refer to:
Sociology
* Peer, an equal in age, education or social class; see Peer group
* Peer, a member of the peerage; related to the term "peer of the realm"
Computing
* Peer, one of several functional units in the same layer of a ne ...
Ghulam Hussainiwala (Saint Hussaini wala, or Saint "who is of Husain"), whose tomb is in the
Border Security Force
The Border Security Force (BSF) is India's border guarding organisation on its border with Pakistan and Bangladesh. It is one of the seven Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) of India, and was raised in the wake of the 1965 war on 1 December 1 ...
(BSF) compound at Hussainiwala. The village was acquired from Pakistan and in exchange India gave 12 of its villages to Pakistan after the
partition of India
The Partition of British India in 1947 was the change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: India and Pakistan. T ...
.
Across the border, the Ganda Singh Wala village was named after a Sikh soldier of
British Indian Army
The British Indian Army, commonly referred to as the Indian Army, was the main military of the British Raj before its dissolution in 1947. It was responsible for the defence of the British Indian Empire, including the princely states, which cou ...
,
Ganda Singh Datt
Sardar Bahadur Risaldar Major Ganda Singh Datt, (1830 – July 1903) was a decorated soldier in the British Indian Army, who served in the 19th Regiment of Bengal Lancers (also known as Fane's Horse).
Ganda Singh was a Mohyal Brahmin of ...
Indo-Pakistani War of 1965
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 or the Second Kashmir War was a culmination of skirmishes that took place between April 1965 and September 1965 between Pakistan and India. The conflict began following Pakistan's Operation Gibraltar, which was d ...
, the 2nd Maratha Light Infantry (also called the Kali Panchwin) was based in Mathura when it deployed a small unit to Hussainiwala in the Firozpur sector of Punjab. During the war, the Kali Panchwin defended Hussainiwala Headworks in Ferozepur sector. It defended the headworks against an attack by a full infantry brigade supported by armoured columns of the Pakistan Army. The tower on the other side of the river was captured and razed to ground. The battalion launched an attack on the forward two companies supported by tanks, using heavy artillery fire and air support. The Pakistan Army was stalled by the artillery fire, their attack broke up, and they retreated. The Kali Panchwin's commanding officer and battery commander were killed by artillery shelling the next morning while supervising operations. The battalion was awarded the battle honour "Hussainiwala" for its role in the 1965 war, its first post-independence battle honour.
Indo-Pakistan War of 1971
Hussainiwala was captured by Pakistan during the
Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was a military confrontation between India and Pakistan that occurred during the Bangladesh Liberation War in East Pakistan from 3 December 1971 until the
Pakistani capitulation in Dhaka on 16 Decem ...
. On 3 December, at 18:35, units from Pakistan's 106th infantry brigade launched an attack on the village, which was defended by the 15th Punjab Battalion (formerly First Patiala). By the night of 4th December, the 15th Punjab had completely withdrawn from the area, which subsequently fell to Pakistan.
Major Kanwaljit Sandhu, an Indian commander, was badly injured, and Major SPS Waraich was reported captured, as were many
Junior Commissioned Officer
Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) is a term used for a group of military ranks which is higher than havildar (non commissioned officer) and lower than lieutenant (commissioned officer). The term is only used by Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. Sen ...
s and men as the squadrons were taken by surprise and had little time to get to their bunkers. A Pakistani radio news telecast reported (in
Urdu
Urdu (;"Urdu" '' North West Frontier jail. Their current status is unknown. They are listed as missing by the Indian Government along with 52 others, including Major Ashok Suri who wrote a letter to his father in 1975 from
Karachi
Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...
stating that he was alive and well. Pakistan denies holding any of the soldiers who are
missing in action
Missing in action (MIA) is a casualty classification assigned to combatants, military chaplains, combat medics, and prisoners of war who are reported missing during wartime or ceasefire. They may have been killed, wounded, captured, ex ...
The border crossing is now closed for travellers, although a flag retreat ceremony is still held daily. Until 1970, it was the principal road crossing between India and Pakistan, and was a trade route for truckers, mostly for the import of Kandahari Angoor (dehydrated grapes) and other fruits and food products from Pakistan and Afghanistan. The border crossing was replaced by the border crossing at
Attari
Attari, also spelled Atari, is a village of Amritsar district in the Punjab state of India, 3 km from the Indo-Pakistani border at Wagah. It is situated 25 km west of the Sikh holy city of Amritsar, and is the last Indian station on ...
, a little further north. In 2005 there were proposals to reopen the border, but it remained closed. Hussainiwala Headworks is located at this village across the Sutlej river which supplies irrigation water to Bikaner canal and Eastern canal.
Hussainiwala-Ganda Singh Wala border ceremony
At the Hussainiwala–Ganda Singh Wala border crossing, a flag
beating retreat
Beating Retreat is a military ceremony dating to 17th-century England and was first used to recall nearby patrolling units to their castle.
History
Originally it was known as watch setting and was initiated at sunset by the firing of a single ...
ceremony has been held every day at 6 pm since 1970 by the military of both nations. It is open to the public and tourists as a tourist attraction. It is similar to the Mahavir/Sadaki near
Fazilka
Fazilka, also known as Bangla, is a city and a municipal council in Fazilka district of Punjab, India. In 2011, it was made the headquarter of the newly created Fazilka district. The Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline (TAPI) project originating in ...
and Wagah–Atari border ceremony,5 crossing points in India: All you need to know India Today, 10 OCt 2016. Changing Guards, accessed 8 July 2021. though attendees are mostly local Punjabis from either side of the border. As a result, the atmosphere is not as tense as some other border ceremonies, and Indian and Pakistani attendees often smile and wave to one another, and even cheer for each other's guards as they perform the ceremony. At one point during the ceremony, an Indian BSF soldier and a Pakistani Ranger cross over the borderline to collect the flags of their respective nations.
Bhagat Singh
Bhagat Singh (27 September 1907 – 23 March 1931) was a charismatic Indian revolutionary*
* who participated in the mistaken murder of a junior British police officer
*
* in what was to be retaliation for the death of an Indian national ...
,
Sukhdev
Sukhdev Thapar (15 May 1907 – 23 March 1931) was an Indian revolutionary who worked to make India independent from the British Raj along with his best friends and partners Bhagat Singh and Shivaram Rajguru. A senior member of the Hindustan S ...
and Rajguru were cremated on 23 March 1931. It is also the cremation place of
Batukeshwar Dutt
Batukeshwar Dutt (18 November 1910 – 20 July 1965) was an Indian socialist revolutionary and independence fighter in the early 1900s. He is best known for having exploded two bombs, along with Bhagat Singh, in the Central Legislative Assemb ...
, who was also involved in bombing the
Central Legislative Assembly
The Central Legislative Assembly was the lower house of the Imperial Legislative Council, the legislature of British India. It was created by the Government of India Act 1919, implementing the Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms. It was also sometim ...
with Singh, and that of Singh's mother, Vidyawati. After the
Partition of India
The Partition of British India in 1947 was the change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: India and Pakistan. T ...
, the cremation spot became a part of Pakistan but on 17 January 1961 it was returned to India in exchange for 12 villages near the
Sulemanki Headworks
Sulemanki Headworks is a headworks on the River Sutlej near Okara, in the Punjab province of Pakistan.
Sulemanki Headworks is used for irrigation and flood control.
Sulemanki Headworks is part of the Sutlej Valley Project completed between 1922 ...
(Fazilka).
An annual fair takes place at the memorial on 23 March, which is the anniversary of Singh's death. The day is also observed across the state of Punjab.
Attari
Attari, also spelled Atari, is a village of Amritsar district in the Punjab state of India, 3 km from the Indo-Pakistani border at Wagah. It is situated 25 km west of the Sikh holy city of Amritsar, and is the last Indian station on ...
*
Munabao
Munabao is a Bordering Village, just 125 km from Barmer city in the Barmer district in Rajasthan, India. It has bordering Pakistan. It is one of the designated border crossing between two nations, where a daily beating retreat border ceremo ...