AMRITSAR SAHIB—[The] Pakistan government has converted a portion of Sher e Punjab Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s ancestral haveli as a garbage dump in Gujaranwala , Pakistan, informed historian Surinder Kochhar who have [sic] occasionally been visiting Pakistan. [The] Pakistan government had already been using baradari of Maharaja Sher Singh in Lahore as garbage dump added he.
Maharja Ranjit Singh was born in this haveli, the lower floor of which was used as police station for long [time] after Indo-Pak partition. “I have verified that Pakistan government had constructed 8 to 10 toilets and bathrooms in one portion of haveli but few years ago the police station was shifted but toilets were not destroyed and in due course of time, the residents of nearby colonies started dumping garbage in the haveli” he said.
About the significance of haveli, he said till date in one of the room[s] of the haveli on first floor there was a inscription on a tile which says ‘Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Date of Birth November 2, 1780’. The tile was put up by the then deputy commissioner of Gujaranwala in 1891 on the identification of relatives of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.
Notably, in [the] recent past the colonizers had attempted to make a shopping plaza on the land of [the] same haveli. Historian and researcher Surinder Kochhar said that the tomb of Maharaja Sher Singh was also being utterly neglected and now had become a place of shelter for dogs and cats. He said Maharaja Sher Singh was shot dead by his relative Ajit Singh. “Even the bullet marks have also been erased which was unfortunate” said he.
