On the morning of 5th of March 1947, Hindu and Sikh students of Emerson College, Multan, took out a procession to demonstrate against the partition of India, i.e., against the formation of Pakistan. On the way students of D.A.V. (Dayanand Anglo Vernacular) High School, Multan, joined this procession. As the procession moved forward, more and more students joined in. Soon the procession was 700 to 800 strong.
Suddenly this procession was attacked from all sides with sticks, long knives, daggers and sharp machetes. Many children fell wounded, and lay dying. Some managed to escape by running away as fast as they could. News of the attack spread rapidly throughout the City of Multan. Sardar Nanak Singh also heard it at the District Appeals Court.
Reaching the horrendous scene at Bohar Darwaza within minutes, Nanak Singh saw the attackers still chasing the defenseless children. Not thinking of his own safety, disregarding danger to his own person; inspired by the strand of Truth and Righteousness as preached by the Gurus and Lord Krishna, and forgetting the meaning of fear, Sardar Nanak Singh did the unthinkable. Instead of moving away to be out of sight of the attackers and the murderers, he challenged the mob. Going straight into the middle of the melee he shouted aloud to stop the butchery of the children. Seeing his courage, some in the mob relented and moved away thus letting many children escape. But the mob quickly rallied to surround and attack Sardar Nanak Singh with sharp lethal weapons in their hands.
An eyewitness, who was watching the brutal scene of murder and mayhem from the balcony on the second floor of his house nearby, later narrated the cruel manner of Sardar Nanak Singh’s assassination as well as the brave manner of his dying. Badly wounded, bleeding profusely from head to foot, he stood his ground, wielding his little “kirpan” as long as he could manage to raise his right arm, but then succumbed to the relentless onslaught by the killers wielding butchers’ knives, sticks and clubs. With no police or friend in sight, he had no chance of survival.
Having put a bloody end to the peaceful procession, the mob then fanned out and started setting fires to the houses and shops belonging to Hindus and Sikhs. In the historic city of Multan, where the two shrines, one of Hazrat Bahawal Haque, a Muslim, and the other of Bhagat Prahlad, a Hindu, stand side by side, communal frenzy reached an all time high, resulting in a sudden outbreak of violence, brutality, arson and attacks throughout the city. It was a scene of widespread savagery and plunder. Flames from houses set on fire could be seen from miles. The cries of children and wails of women and war cries of the Hindus and Sikhs on one side and of the pro-Pakistani Muslims on the other side could be heard throughout the night. Gun fire and explosions were heard continuously as in a ferocious battle between two opposing armies.
Link to the book: http://www.shaheednanaksingh.com/NanakSingh.pdf