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This day on 12 December 1705, Guru Gobind Ji’s sons Zorawar and Fateh Singh, 9 and 6, were bricked alive for refusing to convert to Islam

Sahibzada Fateh Singh was the youngest of Guru Gobind Singh’s four sons. He and his older brother, Sahibzada Zorawar Singh are among the most hallowed martyrs in Sikhism.

Mughals besieged Anandpur Sahib on the orders of emperor Aurangzeb. The stock of food in the town ran out. The Mughals promised to leave the Sikhs alone if they would hand over the fortress of Anandpur. To this Guru Gobind agreed and left the town with his family and a small band of retainers.

They had not gone very far when the Mughals, breaking their promise, came after them. Guru Gobind entrusted his two younger sons, Zorawar Singh and Fateh Singh as well as his mother, Mata Gujri, to the care of a cook in his household named Gangu.

Having failed to frighten the children and mold them to his wishes, Wazid felt humiliated.  When Baba Zorawar Singh and Fateh Singh bluntly told him they would not adopt Islam under the threats of death or torture, he ordered them to be bricked alive in a wall. They were bricked alive.

When the news of their death reached Guru Gobind Ji’s mother Mata Gujri, she instantly jumped off their building and killed herself.

Their death was the catalyst that triggered end of Mughals in the North.

After Guru Gobind’s death, Madhodas Bairagi, a hermit from Nanded, whom the Guru baptised as Gurbaksh Singh, commonly known as Banda Bahadur, besieged the Punjab. After laying waste, the cities of Samana and Sandhaura, he moved towards Sirhind and after defeating the Mughal forces, beheaded Wazir Khan.

The place where the two sons of Guru Gobind were bricked alive is today known as Fatehgarh Sahib.