Ranjit Singh’s statue arrives at Kartarpur

Gift by Sikh historian, Bobby Singh Bansal, who is president of SK Foundation in UK

LAHORE:

The statue of Ranjit Singh is to be installed in the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib at Kartarpur.

This statue had been initially installed at the Shahi Fort in Lahore in June 2019 on the occasion of the 180th death anniversary of Ranjit Singh. However, the statue was vandalised three times since its installation in 2019.

It had been installed in front of Rani Jindan's mansion in the Shahi Fort.

The statue was gifted by a Sikh historian, Bobby Singh Bansal, who is the president of SK Foundation in the UK.

The masterpiece was sculpted under the supervision of Fakir Saifuddin, director of the Fakir Khana Museum. However, activists of a group had damaged the statue first in September 2020 and then in December of the same year.

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After the statue was repaired, it was reinstalled, but then in August 2021, the statue was vandalised for the third time.

The Walled City of Lahore Authority had restored the statue once again, but the authority had been unable to decide about its re-installation at the Shahi Fort for the last two years since the authority apprehended that it might be vandalised yet again.

Now it has been decided to install the statue of Ranjit Singh near the Darshan point in Gurdwara Darbar Sahib at Kartarpur.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 19^th, 2023.