Gurdwara Sahib Shaheed Ganj Singh Singhnian

Gurdwara Shaheed Ganj in Lahore is a memorial to the Sikhs executed in the city during the eighteenth century, and it is not an easy place to visit.

Shaheed ganj means a place of martyrs. Through the middle decades of the 1700s, Sikhs in Punjab were hunted under a policy of extermination, with prices set on their heads. Those captured were brought to Lahore and killed publicly at the horse market — the Nakhas — near this site. The period is remembered in Sikh history as the ghallugharas, and it is the ground from which the Ardas phrase honouring those who gave their heads but not their faith comes.

The gurdwara commemorates the Singhs and Singhnians — the men and the women — who were put to death here. That the women are named in the shrine's own title is the point of it; their part in that period is not treated as a footnote.

It is a plain site rather than a grand one, and most yatris come away subdued. Groups that have just come from Nankana Sahib, where the story begins in joy, often find the contrast is what stays with them.

The gurdwara stands in inner Lahore. Konnect Yatra groups visit as part of the Lahore programme, travelling together with our own transport and staff.

What a visit involves

A short visit, and a sombre one. The gurdwara is plain; there is no architecture to admire, which is appropriate to what it commemorates. Shoes off and heads covered.

Groups are usually told the history standing in the darbar. Most come away quiet. Allow an hour.

Before you go

• The account of what happened here is difficult and includes the killing of women and children. Consider whether younger members of your group should hear it, and tell our staff either way.
• The site is in inner Lahore, reached through busy lanes.
• It is often visited alongside the Samadhi of Bhai Mani Singh, which belongs to the same decades.

Getting there from your hotel

The gurdwara is in the walled city, twenty to thirty minutes from the Lahore hotels we use, and is combined with the other old-city sites. Konnect Yatra groups travel by private coach with our own staff.