BANTĀ SIṄGH, BHĀĪ (1894-1921), one of the Nankāṇā Sāhib martyrs, was the son of Bhāī Bholā Siṅgh Ḍhilloṅ and Māī Bhāg Kaur of village Biheṛā, in Hoshiārpur district. He was born on 25 October 1894. As a youth, he had engaged in wrestling and gone out hunting. He had also learnt to read and write Punjabi in the Gurmukhī script. He excelled at performing kīrtan, singing the holy hymns. He enlisted in 28th Punjabi Battalion in May 1911 and served with his unit in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) during 1913-15. In 1915, the Battalion moved to Mesopotemia (now Iraq) to take part in the First Great War. Bantā Siṅgh was wounded in his right arm on 13 January 1916 and was retired on medical grounds in August 1916.

        Back in his village, he took to his ancestral occupation of farming. He was visiting Chakk No. 91 Dhannūāṇa in the newly colonized canal district of Sheikhūpurā to see a relation. There he found some volunteers preparing to join Bhāī Lachhmaṇ Siṅgh Dhārovālī's jathā on its way to Gurdwārā Janam Asthān at Nankāṇā Sāhib. Bantā Siṅgh at once decided to accompany them. Inside the shrine, he was done to death, along with other members of the jathā at the bidding of the custodian, Mahant Naraiṇ Dās, on the morning of 20 February 1921.

        See NANKĀṆĀ SĀHIB MASSACRE