Jaswant Singh Khalra (1952–1995) was a notable Sikh human rights activist who investigated and exposed 25,000 unclaimed (Sikh) bodies cremated by the security forces of Punjab during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. In 1995, he was abducted and murdered by the KPS Gill led Punjab Police for revealing evidence against the Punjab Police in international forums.
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Jaswant Singh Khalra was born in 1952 (age 43 at the time of death) in a remote area of Punjab near the India–Pakistan border. He is a resident of Khalra in Tarn Taran district of Punjab., He studied law. In college, he was the spokesperson of the Punjab Students Union. He organized various protests against police corruption and abuse of powers by the government. He also formed small unions in his village and college to encourage students to actively participate in the country’s politics. Khalra was inspired by Indian revolutionary Bhagat Singh. After graduation, Khalra started working for the local village-governing body i.e. Panchayat. In 1985 he moved to Amritsar with his wife. Khalra returned to India from England in 1990. In the early 90s he started working in a bank in Amritsar.
Family
parents and siblings
His grandfather, Harnam Singh, was a freedom fighter during the rebellion against the British. His father’s name is Kartar Singh and mother’s name is Mukhtar Kaur. He has three brothers Rajinder Singh Sandhu, Amarjeet Singh Sandhu and Amarjeet Singh Sandhu. Rajinder and Amarjeet live in the UK, while Gurdev lives in Austria. He had five sisters, Pritam Kaur, Mahinder Kaur, Harjinder Kaur (retired BEO), Baljeet Kaur (retired headmaster) and Beant Kaur.
Jaswant Singh Khalra (left) with his father and brother at his home in Amritsar
Jaswant Singh Khalra with his family
wife and children
In 1981, he was married to Paramjit Kaur, who worked as a librarian in the library of Guru Nanak Dev University in Amritsar. Later, she became a human rights defender.
Jaswant Singh Khalra’s wife, Paramjeet Kaur
They have two children, a daughter, Navkiran Kaur Khalra, and a son, Janmeet Singh. His daughter Navkiran was 10 years old when she was kidnapped.
Navkiran Kaur Khalra
livelihood
During the insurgency period in Punjab, Jaswant Singh Khalra was working as a director of a bank in Amritsar, Punjab. In 1987, he left his job to research extrajudicial killings by the Punjab Police. Additionally, Khalra served as the general secretary of the human rights wing of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).
Activism during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots
Following Operation Blue Star, after which Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards, the Punjab Police were empowered to detain any person suspected of being a terrorist, which led to the 1984 Sikh massacre. Although the militancy of the riots had troubled Khalra from the beginning, it was the kidnapping and murder of his close friend Piara Singh, the director of the co-operative bank where Khalra worked, that led Khalra to begin a detailed investigation into the murders. . Khalra had gone to the Durgiana Temple cremation ground in Amritsar to collect the remains of his friend, who was cremated illegally. There he learned that his friend was not the only one who had been cremated illegally. While checking the crematorium register he discovered a major error, which included the names of victims of extrajudicial executions, as well as the names of their fathers and the villages whose bodies were labeled as “unknown”. I went.
Khalra Mission Committee
In 1995, a committee was formed named Khalra Action Committee to pursue the cases of unidentified bodies. Surinder Singh Ghariyala was appointed chairperson, Balwinder Singh Chabhal as general secretary. And Satnam Singh Amishah will be the spokesperson. Khalra used errors in crematorium records to uncover 25,000 unidentified bodies from 1984 to 1995. He investigated four major cases which included the custodial killing of Behala, the human-shield case related to the death of seven civilians, the cremation of 25,000 unidentified bodies. Punjab, and the killing of approximately 2,000 policemen who did not cooperate in anti-terrorist operations. As general secretary of the human rights wing of the Akali Dal, Khalra released copies of official documents showing secret cremations in Punjab on 16 January 1995. The allegations were based on survey and investigation of the number of missing persons in the district. Records of three cremation grounds, Shamshanghat Patti, Tarn Taran and Durgiana Temple in Amritsar district, one of the 13 erstwhile districts of the state. In January 1995, Khalra’s organization filed a writ petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, demanding an investigation into the disappearance and subsequent cremation. The High Court dismissed the petition on the grounds that it was “vague” and that the petitioner organization did not have the locus standi to file such a petition. On 6 September 1995, Punjab Police kidnapped Jaswant Singh Khalra from his residence in Amritsar. In 1998, the Khalra Action Committee was renamed the Khalra Mission Committee.
Death
On 6 September 1995, Punjab Police abducted Jaswant Singh Khalra from his residence in Amritsar while he was washing his car. However, police officials denied that Khalra was arrested or detained. On 7 September 1995, he was jailed at Chabal Police Station in Tarn Taran. On 12 September 1995, his wife Paramjit Kaur filed a habeas corpus petition in the Supreme Court of India, meanwhile, the police continued to refuse to arrest Khalra. In November 1995, the SC ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate Khalra’s disappearance. The CBI found evidence that Khalra was kept at Kang police station in Tarn Taran district after his abduction by the police. However, CBI later learned that he was transferred from Kang police station on 25 October 1995, after which there was no trace of him. A witness named Kuldeep Singh (former special police officer) claimed that it was SHO Satnam Singh who kept Khalra in illegal confinement at Jhabal police station in Tarn Taran. Kuldeep Singh served food to Khalra during his illegal detention. Kuldeep Singh was recruited into the police by Tarn Taran’s former Senior Superintendent of Police Ajit Singh Sandhu. Sandhu was the main accused in this case who committed suicide by jumping in front of a moving train in May 1997. Another name that came up during Kuldeep’s testimony was that of KPS Gill. Kuldeep alleged that one day the police officers started beating Khalra, meanwhile Kuldeep was asked to bring a glass of hot water. While Kuldeep was heating water, he heard two gunshots after which he ran towards the room, where he was directed by Satnam Singh to go to the car parking. Subsequently, police officials put Khalra’s body in a Maruti van and dumped her body near Harike bridge on the Sutlej river.
tests
On 9 September 1995, Paramjit Kaur filed a PIL demanding justice for her husband’s death. It took ten years for the case of Khalra’s custodial death to be brought to trial, but in 2005, the non-profit organization Ensaf teamed up with private lawyers to bring the perpetrators to justice. Collaboratively, the NGOs Ensaf, Human Rights Watch (HRW), REDRESS and the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice issued a call in May 2006 for the CBI to investigate and prosecute former police chief KPS Gill in the murder. Six police officers were convicted of Khalra’s murder, five of whom were sentenced to life imprisonment in 2007, and the sixth officer was acquitted. SC said,
The police were eliminating the youth on the pretext of being militants and disposing of their bodies without keeping any records and without cremating them.
According to the eyewitness testimony of SPO Kuldeep Singh, former Punjab police chief KPS Gill had captured and interrogated Khalra just days before his murder. Gill interrogated Khalra for half an hour. After Gill leaves, Kuldeep Singh overhears SHO Satnam Singh telling Khalra that if he had listened to Gill and agreed with him, he could have saved himself. Although the court deemed Kuldeep Singh credible and accepted his testimony, the prosecutor continued to investigate him for his alleged role in Gill’s murder. KPS Gill died in 2017 without facing trial. In 2007, the Punjab and Haryana High Court enhanced the jail sentence of four policemen, Sub Inspector Satnam Singh, Surinder Pal Singh, Jasbir Singh and Head Constable Prithvi Pal Singh, to seven years. Later, the court increased his sentence to rigorous imprisonment for life. Although an appeal was filed in the Supreme Court of India against the life imprisonment of the four accused, it was rejected and the Supreme Court upheld the decision of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
legacy
- In 2017, the City Council of Fresno, California approved a proposal to rename Victoria Park after Sikh human rights advocate Jaswant Singh Khalra.
- In 2022, it was announced that Punjabi singer and actor Diljit Dosanjh would play the character of Jaswant Singh Khalra in his biopic. Following this, many people objected to Diljit Dosanjh’s characterization on the film sets of the Jaswant Singh Khalra biopic, calling him a “foreigner” and protesting saying that he was westernized.
Facts/General Knowledge
- Three months before his disappearance, Khalra visited Canada at the invitation of the World Sikh Organization of Canada, where he highlighted his research on the atrocities taking place in Punjab at a WSO parliamentary dinner.
- While he was in Canada, his fellow Canadian Sikhs suggested that he should apply for refugee status in Canada as returning to India could be fatal for him. However, Khalra said that he knew he could be killed, but he had a job to do and he did not think he could do it sitting outside Punjab.
- On the 25th death anniversary of Jaswant Singh Khalra in 2020, the City of Burnaby proclaimed Jaswant Singh Khalra Day.
Proclamation of the city of Burnaby on the 25th death anniversary of Jaswant Singh Khalra
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn