Sikh Stabbed To Death While Protecting A Victim Of Crime

[Kaljug]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8450052.stm

A man was stabbed to death while chasing thieves who had snatched a woman's handbag in east London.

Sukhwinder Singh, of Barking, was attacked while pursuing two men who mugged a 28-year-old woman near Barking station in east London on Friday night.

Mr Singh, 31, had chased the men along Victoria Road, into Uphall Road, where he was stabbed at about 1900 GMT, the Metropolitan Police said.

He was taken to the Royal London Hospital where he later died.

Police have set up a cordon around the murder scene and officers have been searching bins in Victoria Road.

The two suspects were described as black, aged in their 20s to 30s, and both were about 5ft 7in to 6ft.

Detective Inspector John Sandlin said: "This is a tragic death of a man who was killed for attempting to stop others committing crime.

"I am appealing for anyone that knows who committed this crime, or who has any information about those who committed this crime, to do the right thing and come forward and contact police."

He also urged anyone who had seen the robbery, the following altercation or people fleeing the area to come forward.

"It is also possible that the suspects may have abandoned the bag stolen and I appeal to anyone who may find a brown leather shoulder bag, to contact police," he added.

[Matheen]

Well done to the Singh for doing the right thing. Waheguru kirpa rakhan.

[amardeep]

What a beautiful act of this Singh. May God bless him

[Guest]

Proper shaahid in my eyes.

[tonyhp32]

My condolences go out to his family and friends. One can imagine what a shock his death will be to his wife and child in India. According to media reports he was a well liked Gursikh in the community who was eager to help others. Let's pray that the murderers are caught soon.

[dalsingh101]

A brave man.

[shaheediyan]

All it takes is a few brave Singhs lke this, and few acts of bravery like this to give shaan to Shamshere Pitas panth. This Singhs brave death is something to celebrate - may Vaheguru bless us with more real life Lion hearts like Sukhwinder Singh.

Vaheguru ji ka Khalsa Vaheguru ji ki Fat-heh mere vadai veer nu.

[dalsingh101]

He has only gone one step further in the journey.

[Mithar]

It is very sad he died. He is a Shaheed indeed.

[Guest]

Good to hear we can all agree on his shaheedi. This is monumental moment in Modern Sikh history that shouldn't be ignored at all. This modern day shahedi should be promoted in every divan, in every katha/kirtan.

[HSD1]

Murdering someone over a handbag. Criminals have sunk to a new low in this country. Heroes like Sukhwinder Singh are uncommon.

[dalsingh101]

Murdering someone over a handbag. Criminals have sunk to a new low in this country.

Where have you been living? People have been getting murdered over a lot less than this. A perceived bad look for instance.

[HSD1]

Yeah I shouldnt be surprised. It's just that in the last few years London has felt a lot safer than it used to be, but it looks like this stuff is still there under the surface.

[Kaljug]

Pictures of the Singh Sahib:

Sukhwinder Singh, 1

Sukhwinder Singh, 2

A message from someone who knows the Singh on SikhSangat:

Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh!!

Just received this text:

"Gurfateh! Sukhwinder Singh Ji died as a national hero on the corner of Victoria Road & Uphall Road, Barking. Benti to local Sikh Sangat to lay flowers down on the site in memory of the Singh's bravery. Dhan Guru Dhan Guru Pyaray!"

Please take some time out, I saw only one bunch of flowers there. We need to show how proud we are of this Singh!

Remember him and his family in your ardasa today, Khalsa Jio.

K.

[G.Kaur]

Rest in peace.

[laalsingh]

May Waheguru bless us with same courage.

[Maha Singh]

It is sad to see anyone lose their life in such violence, let alone a fellow Sikh. My condolences are with his family who are not close to even mourn his death properly.

I know im going to get gunned down for this, but was it really worth it? The lady had her handbag stolen by petty theives, who were most likely druggies wanting the money for their next fix. Credit cards, mobile phone, money, all replaceable, a human life isnt. If the two people hurt the lady, or attempted to rape her, or kidnap her child, intervention would be a neccessity. Can you imagine how the lady whos bag got robbed feels, someone tried to help her and then ends up dead.

I feel sorry for his family and the lady involved and hope the police can catch these people who commited this crime.

[Mithar]

It is sad to see anyone lose their life in such violence, let alone a fellow Sikh. My condolences are with his family who are not close to even mourn his death properly.

I know im going to get gunned down for this, but was it really worth it? The lady had her handbag stolen by petty theives, who were most likely druggies wanting the money for their next fix. Credit cards, mobile phone, money, all replaceable, a human life isnt. If the two people hurt the lady, or attempted to rape her, or kidnap her child, intervention would be a neccessity. Can you imagine how the lady whos bag got robbed feels, someone tried to help her and then ends up dead.

I feel sorry for his family and the lady involved and hope the police can catch these people who commited this crime.

True. Can't stop feeling sad for the man's family.

[Guest]

Maha singh, thats one way to look at it. But it all depends what kind of thoughts he had when he chased these guys, was his intention to purely help this poor lady who got her bag stolen stand by his dharam values or was he expecting any fame/award in return? what was his thoughts after being stabbed? All these things matters but only vahiguroo knows only, we can only speculate. Sangat should give benefit of doubt to this singh and label him shahed, because he gave his life helping someone. Two things come out of this- this set an purest example and standard in modern day shaheedi instead of sangat claiming any joe blow sevadar like rest of us an shaheed when passing away, now standard are set high for shaheedi like it was before, second thing comes out of it, an lesson that those who gave their life don't have seconds thoughts, is it really worth it?, they just do it with their tan, mann, dhann. For them, its their life well spent helping someone and setting example, for rest of us and for society it may seem waste because of thoughts like- he could have done this or that at that moment.

There are various ways to gain sharan in darbar of vahiguroo, some do it via years of seva, years of naam abhyaas, shastar abhyaas, this is also another way of doing it, if thoughts are free from ego, pure to help others with one deb dristhi as jot of vahiguroo during action , he will be consider marjeeva sikh in realm of vahiguroo darbar and his actions pretty much shows his deb dristhi and avastha, he didn't even know this woman.

[jaikaara]

it is just bad luck that human life was lost for material, i feel one has to be equipped before one gets into this, sometimes a man is in high spirit and feels confident to face this, sometimes its not his day.

i feel smartness is required, while chasing be carfeul of the route around , it shouldnt be there you are chasing him into his own den with a dozen guys from his own camp around.

The other thing is try to judge if you can take over him, size, structure, even the race matters. Blacks are known to be ruthless more than anyone. S look at what you are getting into.

Shouting all the way while chasing in a street too helps.

I had the worst joke in my area, i was just getting out of my apartment when i saw someone running and a elderly neighbor just screamed 'catch him'. I started running after him. A few steps ahead a friend joined me too. The guy whom we were running after was kinda roughie and full of speed. We started shouting at that person while running.

Now what happened was we passed by the railway station, this is a busy area and the crowd was also in good number. A guy tried to catch him at the corner but only go his shirt off !

Now we both had run a good distance and slowed down since he had gone too ahead. We stopped. The crowd had gathered and was expecting some real spicy 'talk' about this. They asked us what happened. Guess what ! My friend looked at me and asked 'what happened ?' I had no idea what to say since I really dint know ! I turned to him and said 'o yaara tu dass'. He frowned at me saying 'Mainu ki pata, tenu pajda vekhi main vi pajan laga'.

The crowd was following us and we both were like not even wanting to take a glance at them. They followed us blabbering upto some distance and then dispersed.

[shaheediyan]

It matters not what we think, i.e. was it worth it, obviously it was worth it to Sukhvinder Singh - he made a decision to not allow some muggers get away with the crime, and that can only ever be commendable. It is sad that his family are now without him, but it good for the chardikala of the Panth - it is charavai like this that used to be celebrated by Singhs in the old days - acts of bravery like this nourish the courage of the up-coming generations, its not enough to only have ithihaas, people need real life examples of bravery.

It was his choice to pursue the attackers, I understand what MahaSingh is saying regarding the meagerness of the crime, but the that is not the point, the point is this Singh decided to stand up and seek justice. we should respect his decision, even if we don't agree with it/wouldn't have made the same decision ourselves.

A friend of mine was ranting and raving about a small Sri Lankan (British born) lady who decided to stand up to a group of Nazi-type thugs who were bullying a black tube passenger. She said the lady didn't let the thugs get a word in edge ways and made them look like complete bufoons with her well thought out and sophisticated talking down. Amazingly, each one of the thugs personally walked upto the lady and apologised to her before getting off at their station, the sherni received a standing ovation from the rest of the passengers.

This may see like a silly choice for the lady to make in the face of a very real threat, but it was her choice, and good on her, it worked for her.

If we think of Singhs of old times (I know its a different age, country etc), but would they have let anyone get away with daylight robbery of an innocent lady... probably not. This Singh was obviously only following his natural instincts that were most likely taught to him by equally brave parents...

If he had survived the ordeal, he would have been celebrated as a national hero, but sadly, people don't have the same views for those who give their lives trying to uphold values for a decent society.

One big reason that crime on the street is so high today, is that the public has lost its voice and courage, many a time do we hear about someone being mugged/assaulted etc and the public put their head down and walk on, this is what has given confidence to thugs in todays society..

[laalsingh]

It is sad to see anyone lose their life in such violence, let alone a fellow Sikh. My condolences are with his family who are not close to even mourn his death properly.

I know im going to get gunned down for this, but was it really worth it? The lady had her handbag stolen by petty theives, who were most likely druggies wanting the money for their next fix. Credit cards, mobile phone, money, all replaceable, a human life isnt. If the two people hurt the lady, or attempted to rape her, or kidnap her child, intervention would be a neccessity. Can you imagine how the lady whos bag got robbed feels, someone tried to help her and then ends up dead.

I feel sorry for his family and the lady involved and hope the police can catch these people who commited this crime.

A weak being is being punched and robbed by attackers. Does a Sikh should think before jumping in? Average person can reason that one had small kid and family to take care of and he should stay away from these kind of situations.

But Sikh of Guru is deewana. Deewanay don't do calculations. They can't miss a chance to do shubh karman. I hope this becomes a habit for every citizen of Sikh nation.

[shaheediyan]

"They asked us what happened. Guess what ! My friend looked at me and asked 'what happened ?' I had no idea what to say since I really dint know ! I turned to him and said 'o yaara tu dass'. He frowned at me saying 'Mainu ki pata, tenu pajda vekhi main vi pajan laga'."

Lol, classic.

[dalsingh101]

I haven't read many of the above posts but I strongly want to say this:

When we committ to anything in life that has a risk, we need to accept the outcome. The thing with bahadhuri is that is not guaranteed. That is why it is bahadhur!!

Singh did what he did and we should honour him for it. In our history and in our future too (if we are to have any honouraable future that is), we had and will have casualties. We don't regret the sacrifices of our ancestors and nor should we this Singh.

If we cry and regret the outcome of bravery when it doesn't go our way we may as well never ever be brave.

I honour Singh and I hope what happened is not used by some to excuse perpetual inaction in the face of danger. We must judge each situation as it comes.

For those who don't know, the women whose pursse was snatched was a Sikh women named Karamjit Kaur who was a 28 year old student. not that it matters one ounce who the victim was. Singh's last words were "He had a knife." I only wish we could do a whip round for the guys family. I hope the local Gurdwara (which he attended regularly) does this.

[SURYADEV]

Condolances to the family, esp his son who, from one media report, has never seen his father. The first time you see your father and its in a coffin!!!.

Anyway, what matters now is that his body needs to be repatriated to INdia and his family need to think of their future. I know that the Gurdwara has decided to cover the full costs of repatriation but it might be worthwhile for everyone here to 'chip in' some money.