The Shining Lamp — Page 82
82 conspiracy to murder, due to the similarities of which I have been to carry out the killing and meanwhile the prophecy of the author of Mau‘ u d Mas i h i was also nigh because likely 1897 CE was the sixth year and the 5th of March of this year was the last Eid of the sixth year. ’ The number of errors in this are so many that it does not merit stating. In any case the intent of all this is to say that this [supposed] plan had determined for the killing to happen on or about the day of Eid. Then, in order to strengthen this very suspicion, it is written in the same paper that, ‘This murder is the result of a lengthy, well-thought-out, and deliberate plan of many people—the contrivances for which were taking place near Amritsar and Gurdaspur and over there near Delhi and Bombay since quite some time. Is it not likely that this conspiracy originated from the hands of those people who had been publicly say- ing in written and spoken word that we will have the Pundit killed and moreover that the Pundit will die a painful death within such a period and on such a day? Does the specific writer of several books against the Arya religion have no link to this conspiracy?’ By this the paper wishes to point out to the Government: could such a character who fixed the time span, conveyed the day of the killing, and kept verbally affirming that he would die on a given day be considered unconnected with the conspiracy to murder? Then, in the 16 March 1897 CE issue of another paper which is called Akhb a r-e-‘ A m, it is written on page 3 regarding the killer of Lekh Ram: ‘There are all sorts of rumours afloat and the attitude of the gentleman from Qadian is the strangest of all… It has to be admitted with great sadness that it is the responsibility of Mirza Qadiani that while he made the prophecy concerning the murder of Lekh Ram based on ilh a m, then he should also tell us on the basis of the same ilh a m who his murderer is. ’ Then, the editor of Akhb a r-e-‘ A m writes in its issue of 10 March 1897 that, ‘If this had happened with Deputy Sahib’—meaning, with Atham—‘the consequences of which Lekh Ram has had to suffer, then the situation would have been different’—meaning in that case the Government would certainly have taken the one who made the prophecy to task. Similarly, An i s-i-Hind of Meerut after pointing to the death of Lekh Ram writes in its paper of March that, ‘We were shocked