Retired police officer with distinguished career, including SQ117 hijack response, dies at 86

Jagjit Singh Sundar Singh died on Oct 8 and left behind two sons and a wife.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF KALIDASS SKS

Zaihan Mohamed Yusof

Published Oct 09, 2026, 08:40 PM

Updated Oct 09, 2026, 08:40 PM

Retired police officer Jagjit Singh s/o Sundar Singh died at 86 after pneumonia and heart problems. He was known as humble, quiet, and deeply private about his work.

Singh had a distinguished SPF career from 1967, rising to Deputy Commissioner of Police (Operations). He led the SQ117 hijacking response and was Singapore’s highest-ranking Sikh police officer at the time.

He kept serving after retirement, working for CISCO and PUB, and earned national awards. Colleagues and family remembered his care for officers, his wish to inspire youth, and his love for Manchester United.

SINGAPORE – Right to the end of his life, retired police officer Jagjit Singh Sundar Singh did not want the people around him to worry.

Despite his distinguished career, during which he rose to the high rank of deputy commissioner of police (operations) and coordinated operations in response to the Singapore Airlines Flight SQ117 hijacking in 1991, Singh, who died on Oct 8, did not like to talk about his work.

His son, Daljit Ghoshal, 56, told The Straits Times on Oct 9 that his father was a humble man.

“He was always gentle, and he did not talk much about what he did. He was not somebody who liked to show (off). He was a quiet man,” said Ghoshal.

Singh, 86, died on Oct 8 and left behind two sons and a wife. He was hospitalised in September with pneumonia.

“It went away, came back, went away, came back, and then he got weaker and weaker and just couldn’t fight it... his heart had weakened due to the narrowing of one of his valves, which was causing a problem with oxygen flow,” Ghoshal added.

A junior officer, who had served under Singh at Kandang Kerbau Police Station near Tekka Market, said Singh’s heart was in the right place as a police officer.

Kalidass S.K.S., 75, said Singh, then an acting superintendent in the 1970s, was already thinking about community policing and how to improve the police force.

Many respected Singh because, even as deputy commissioner of police (operations), he would drive around at night to check on police officers from other divisions who were on duty.

Said Kalidass: “He was an ‘on-the-ground’ officer who took pride in men’s welfare and in correcting mistakes that police officers made. He could have easily asked a junior officer to do the rounds, but he was different.”

Singh’s achievements can best be described as extraordinary. He joined the Singapore Police Force (SPF) in 1967 as an assistant superintendent of police and later rose through the ranks to become director of the Criminal Investigation Department.

Singh was later promoted to deputy commissioner of police (operations) – becoming the highest-ranking Sikh officer in Singapore’s police history at the time.

Senior police officers remembered Singh as the ground operations commander during the nine-hour stand-off at Changi Airport, when Pakistani hijackers took control of SQ Flight 117.

In the end, the four hijackers were killed after SAF Special Operations Force soldiers stormed the aircraft.

When he retired from the Singapore Police Force around 2000, Singh started work at CISCO (now known as Certis CISCO) the next day, leading a project to enable CISCO to undertake law enforcement and investigation work on behalf of statutory boards and government departments, according to a 2017 report by Asia Samachar.

Ghoshal said: “He really didn’t want to stop working. He wanted to contribute. He was very much into the idea of Singapore as a nation and the importance of it.”

Singh continued to serve and later worked at the Public Utilities Board in 2003, retiring at the age of 73 in 2013.

For his service, Singh was awarded several medals by the SPF and honoured with national awards such as the Pingat Berkebolehan (Efficiency Medal), the Pingat Bakti Setia (Long Service Medal) and the Bintang Bakti Masyarakat (Public Service Star).

While he could have retired quietly, Singh sought to inspire younger Singaporeans to keep the nation safe by pursuing careers in law enforcement, said Sarabjeet Singh, who was president of the Young Sikh Association (YSA) from 2018 to 2022.

Jagjit was one of the prominent Sikhs featured in YSA’s SG50 book, Singapore At 50 – 50 Sikhs And Their Contributions.

Said Sarabjeet, 42: “He shared his life experiences and contributions to Singapore because it was important to him that the youth know about the history and the complexities of law enforcement.”

In 2017, Singh was quoted in Asia Samachar as saying that working as a police officer was extremely taxing and the pressure to deliver good results was intense.

Yet, there was always time for Manchester United Football Club, Singh’s favourite team.

Kalidass, who last saw Singh in 2023 at a 75th birthday party for a former police officer, shared that not many people knew of Singh’s unwavering support for “Man U” – he seldom missed a team match on TV.

“This personal side of Jagjit Singh offers a warm and affectionate reminder that behind the disciplined and respected police commander was a man who also found simple joy and excitement in the beautiful game,” he added.

Zaihan Mohamed Yusof is senior crime correspondent at The Straits Times.

贾格吉特·辛格·桑达尔·辛格于 10 月 8 日去世，留下两个儿子和妻子。

图片：由 KALIDASS SKS 提供

扎伊汉·穆罕默德·优素福

发布于2026年10月9日晚上8:40

更新于2026年10月9日晚上8:40

退休警官贾格吉特·辛格（Jagjit Singh）之子桑达尔·辛格（Sundar Singh）因肺炎和心脏病去世，享年86岁。他为人谦逊、低调，对工作极其低调。

辛格自1967年起在新加坡警察部队（SPF）拥有卓越的职业生涯，一路晋升至副警务处长（行动）。他领导了SQ117劫机事件的应对工作，并且是当时新加坡级别最高的锡克教警官。

退休后，他继续为社会服务，先后在思科和公共事业局工作，并荣获国家级奖项。同事和家人都记得他关心警员，希望激励青年，以及他对曼联的热爱。

新加坡——直到生命的尽头，退休警官贾格吉特·辛格·桑达尔·辛格都不希望身边的人为他担心。

尽管辛格的职业生涯十分杰出，他曾晋升为警察副总监（行动），并在 1991 年新加坡航空公司 SQ117 航班劫机事件中协调了应对行动，但他并不喜欢谈论自己的工作。辛格于 10 月 8 日去世。

他的儿子，56岁的达尔吉特·戈沙尔 (Daljit Ghoshal) 于 10 月 9 日告诉《海峡时报》，他的父亲是一个谦逊的人。

“他一直很温和，很少谈论自己的工作。他不是那种喜欢炫耀的人。他是个安静的人，”戈沙尔说。

辛格，享年86岁，于10月8日去世，身后留下两个儿子和妻子。他于9月因肺炎入院治疗。

“病情时好时坏，反复发作，然后他越来越虚弱，最终无力抵抗……由于心脏瓣膜狭窄，导致氧气供应出现问题，他的心脏也因此衰弱了。”戈沙尔补充道。

曾在德卡市场附近的坎当克尔鲍警察局担任辛格手下的一名初级警官表示，辛格作为一名警察，出发点是好的。

75 岁的 Kalidass SKS 表示，辛格在 20 世纪 70 年代担任代理警司时，就已经在思考社区警务以及如何改进警队。

辛格深受许多人尊敬，因为即使他担任副警务专员（行动），他也会夜间开车四处巡视，查看其他部门值班的警官的情况。

卡利达斯说：“他是一位脚踏实地的警官，以民众福祉为荣，并致力于纠正警员犯下的错误。他本可以轻易地让一名资历较浅的警员巡逻，但他却与众不同。”

辛格的成就堪称非凡。他于1967年加入新加坡警察部队，担任助理警司，之后一路晋升，最终成为刑事调查部主任。

辛格后来晋升为副警务处长（行动），成为当时新加坡警察史上级别最高的锡克教警官。

高级警官们回忆说，在樟宜机场长达九小时的对峙中，辛格是地面行动指挥官，当时巴基斯坦劫机者控制了新加坡航空 117 号航班。

最终，新加坡武装部队特种作战部队士兵冲上飞机，击毙了四名劫机者。

据《亚洲新闻报》2017 年的一篇报道，辛格于 2000 年左右从新加坡警察部队退休，第二天便开始在思科（现名为 Certis CISCO）工作，领导一个项目，使思科能够代表法定机构和政府部门开展执法和调查工作。

戈沙尔说：“他真的不想停止工作。他想做出贡献。他非常认同新加坡作为一个国家的理念及其重要性。”

辛格继续任职，后来于 2003 年在公共事业委员会工作，并于 2013 年以 73 岁高龄退休。

由于他的服务，辛格被 SPF 授予多枚奖章，并荣获国家奖项，如 Pingat Berkebolehan（效率奖章）、Pingat Bakti Setia（长期服务奖章）和 Bintang Bakti Masyarakat（公共服务之星）。

2018 年至 2022 年担任青年锡克教协会 (YSA) 主席的萨拉布吉特·辛格 (Sarabjeet Singh) 表示，辛格本可以悄然退休，但他却努力激励年轻的新加坡人投身执法事业，以维护国家安全。

Jagjit 是 YSA 出版的 SG50 书籍《新加坡 50 周年——50 位锡克教徒及其贡献》中介绍的杰出锡克教徒之一。

42岁的萨拉布吉特说：“他分享了自己的人生经历以及对新加坡的贡献，因为他认为让年轻人了解执法部门的历史和复杂性非常重要。”

2017 年，辛格在接受《亚洲新闻报》采访时表示，当警察的工作非常辛苦，而且要取得好成绩的压力也很大。

然而，辛格始终不忘关注他最喜欢的球队——曼联足球俱乐部。

卡利达斯最后一次见到辛格是在 2023 年，当时他参加了一位前警官的 75 岁生日派对。卡利达斯表示，很少有人知道辛格是“曼联”的坚定支持者——他很少错过电视上的任何一场曼联比赛。

“贾格吉特·辛格的这一个人特质，温暖而深情地提醒我们，在这位纪律严明、备受尊敬的警察指挥官背后，也隐藏着一个在精彩的比赛中找到简单快乐和兴奋的人，”他补充道。

Zaihan Mohamed Yusof 是《海峡时报》的高级犯罪记者。