Jagga Gujjar (1940 - 3 July 1968) was a bandit in

Lahore, Pakistan Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Pakistani province of Punjab. It is the second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and 27th largest in the world, with a population of over 14 million. Lahore is one of Pakistan ...

during the 1950s and 1960s. He was very famous for the tax he imposed on the well to do called 'Jagga Tax'. A chunk of the money so extracted, was spent on the welfare of the poor, by him. He was a resident of

Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...

's area Islamia Park, near Chauburji.

Beginning

How Gujjar became a sign of terror is an interesting story. There used to be a famous annual fair in

's Islamia Park area during the 1950s. His brother Makhan Gujjar had a quarrel with famous outlaw of the time namely Achha Shukar Wala who belonged to

's locality

Qila Gujar Singh Qila Gujar Singh (''Fort of laina Singh'') is a residential neighborhood located in the central part of the city of Lahore, Pakistan. It is the site of the fort of the 18th-century Bhangi Misl ruler, Sardar laina Singh Bhangi a ujjar Gujjar S ...

. Later, Makhan was murdered in 1954. Gujjar was only 14-year-old at the time of his brother's murder. Within eight days, Gujjar avenged the murder of his brother and killed the murderer. After this, Gujjar landed in jail. When he was in jail, he came to know that real man behind his brother's murderer was Achha who had hired the murderer for the purpose. Now, he planned murder of Achha from the jail walls. As per his planning, an attempt on life of Achha was made. As a result, two people were killed but Achha survived though injured. While he was in jail, his foe Achha got reported patronage of the then governor of

West Pakistan West Pakistan was the western province of Pakistan between One Unit, 1955 and Legal Framework Order, 1970, 1970, covering the territory of present-day Pakistan. Its land borders were with Afghanistan, India and Iran, with a maritime border wit ...

, Amir Muhammad Khan. The governor especially used Accha in quelling anti-government demonstrations in

Release from jail

Gujjar was released from the jail on early parole in January 1968. By that time, General (Retd) Muhammad Musa Khan had become the governor of

. When he came out of the jail, he was received by a large crowd at the city's Mozang Chowk. He got married after coming out of the jail.

End

After coming out of jail, Gujjar organized a gang and started collecting forced tax from the butcher community. This tax got the name of 'Jagga Tax'. In Pakistan, even today this type of tax is called 'Jagga Tax'. The center of his highhandedness was

's Bakra Mandi (cattle market) area where he collected rupee one (Re 1) from every butcher on purchase of one goat. Finally, Gujjar along with his accomplice Raju Gujjar was killed in an encounter with police near his home in Nawan Kot area of

in July 1968. The next day's newspapers published the news of his murder very prominently. The police party who killed them was given Rs 300 in reward. Fateh Khan Bandial was

deputy commissioner A deputy commissioner is a police, income tax or administrative official in many countries. The rank is commonplace in police forces of Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries, usually ranking below the Commissioner. Australia In all Aust ...

while Haji Habib ur Rehman,

superintendent of police Superintendent (Supt) is a rank in the British police and in most English-speaking Commonwealth nations. In many Commonwealth countries, the full version is superintendent of police (SP). The rank is also used in most British Overseas Territori ...

at that time.

In popular culture

Name Jagga was already being used in the titles of Punjabi films before Gujjar's death like 'Jagga' (1958). After his death, a number of

Punjabi language Punjabi, sometimes spelled Panjabi, is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language native to the Punjab region of Pakistan and India. It is one of the most widely spoken native languages in the world, with approximately 150 million native sp ...

movies were made on topic of Gujjar starting from 1970s by the

's film industry. Some of films having either Jagga or Gujjar in their titles included 'Bala Gujjar' (1973), 'Jagga Gujjar' (1976), '

Wehshi Gujjar ''Wehshi Gujjar'' is a 1979 Pakistani Punjabi action musical movie produced by Haji Mohabbat Ali. starring Sultan Rahi, Aasia, Iqbal Hassan, Afzaal Ahmed, and Adeeb. It was written and directed by Yunus Malik, Anwar Kamal Pasha. Plot The m ...

' (1979), 'Gujjar', ' Jagga Tay Shera' (1984), 'Putar Jaggay Da' (1990), 'Jagga Tax' (2002) and ' Buddha Gujjar' (2002). Some of these movies were made by the family members of Jagga Gujjar who entered in the film business after he was killed. The noted film makers of this family include Chaudhry Miraj Din and Chaudhry Imtiaz Gujjar. It is interesting to note that their rival family had entered the business of movie making much before them and also made a number of good films. Famous film makers of the rival family include Achha Shukar Wala himself and Kamran Chaudhry. Their most famous was 1965 film Malangi. Both the families have since ended their enmity.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jagga Gujjar 1940 births 1968 deaths Criminals from Lahore