Shot at Wisconsin Sikh temple in 2012, Baba was completely bed ridden for seven years.
In August 2012, in one of the worst attacks on Sikhs in America, a gunman with neo-Nazi ties barged into a gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin and opened fire killing six worshipers and wounding several others.
In the tragedy, Baba Punjab Singh, an elderly Wisconsin resident who was at the Sikh temple at the time, was shot and received severe injuries that left him paralyzed.
Punjab Singh breathed his last on Monday after spending seven and a half years of his life bed-bound, communicating with others with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ by blinking his eyes.
Singh’s family though immensely hurt by the tragedy kept a brave face throughout his life.
For many Sikhs across the US, he was the face of Sikh resilience and a grim reminder of how racism destroys lives and families.
Speaking for the family his son, Raghuvinder Singh said, “It is with sadness, but also peace and acceptance, that we confirm the passing of my father, Baba Punjab Singh.”
“He was a beloved husband, father, and family member to us all, and equally revered by many in our community.
“Baba spent his life serving as a Sikh religious teacher who traveled the country and the world delivering kathas — orations that share the lessons and history of the Sikh faith.”
“Baba ji’s capacity for love and optimism was unchanged by the heinous attack in Oak Creek, as well as the life-altering injuries he sustained,” he added.
“Even when I regularly visited him in the hospital after his paralysis, I would ask him: ‘Are you living in chardi kala, the Sikh spirit of eternal optimism?’
“Each time, without fail, he would blink twice to say ‘yes.’ His resilience embodied the greater Sikh community’s response in the wake of the Oak Creek tragedy, and it was one of the many lessons he continually taught throughout his life.”
“My father’s injuries and his passing, along with the other lives lost that day, are a reminder of the toxic hate that still plagues our country,” Raghuvinder Singh said.
“But I want Baba ji to be remembered by the values, inspired by Sikhi, that he exemplified every day — including love, equality, humility, eternal optimism, and service to others.”
“These values, which are critically important to our collective humanity, can bring us all closer together,” he said.
“Our hope is that his life serves as a reminder of an essential truth of our faith: that the number of our breaths is written by God, but it falls to us to do our best in how we use them.”