Jaswant Singh Khalra (1952-1995) was a prominent Sikh human rights activist who investigated and highlighted the 25,000 unclaimed (Sikh) bodies cremated by Punjab security forces during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots corpse. In 1995, he was kidnapped and killed by the Punjab Police led by KPS Gill for leaking evidence against the Punjab Police at an international forum.
Wiki/Biography
Jaswant Singh Khalra was born in 1952 (43 years old at the time of his death) in a remote area of Punjab near the India-Pakistan border.He hails from Kala in Tarn Taran district of Punjab. He studied law. While in college, he was the spokesperson of the Punjab Students Union. He organized various protests against police corruption and government abuse of power. He also formed small trade unions in villages and universities and encouraged students to actively participate in national politics. Khalra was inspired by Indian revolutionary Bhagat Singh. After graduation, Khalra started working in the local village government, known as the Panchayat. In 1985, he and his wife moved to Amritsar. In 1990, Khalra returned to India from the UK. In the early 1990s, he started working in a bank in Amritsar.
family
Parents and siblings
His grandfather Harnam Singh was a freedom fighter during the revolt against the British. His father’s name is Kartar Singh and his 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 has five sisters: Pritam Kaur, Mahinder Kaur, Harjinder Kaur (retired BEO), Baljit Kaur (retired principal) and Beant Kaur.
Jaswant Singh Khalra (left) with his father and brother at their home in Amritsar
Jaswant Singh Kalra and his family
wife and children
In 1981, he married Paramjit Kaur, who worked as a librarian at the Guru Nanak Dev University Library in Amritsar. Later, she became a human rights defender.
Paramjit Kaur, wife of Jaswant Singh Khalra
They have two children: daughter Navkiran Kaur Khalra and son Janmeet Singh. His daughter Navkiran was 10 years old when he was abducted.
Navkiran Kaul Kala
Profession
Jaswant Singh Khalra was the director of a bank in Amritsar, Punjab, during the militancy period in Punjab. In 1987, he quit his job to study extrajudicial police killings in Punjab. Apart from this, Kalra also serves as the general secretary of the human rights wing of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).
Activism during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots
After Indira Gandhi was assassinated by Sikh bodyguards during Operation Blue Star, the Punjab police were empowered to detain anyone they suspected of being a militant, which led to the 1984 Sikh massacre. While the extremism of the riots troubled Kalra from the start, it was the kidnapping and killing of his close friend Piyala Singh, president of the cooperative bank where Kalra worked, that prompted Kalra to express concern about the killings A detailed investigation was launched. Khalra went to the Durgiana Mandir crematorium in Amritsar to collect the body of his friend who was cremated illegally. There he discovered that his friend was not the only one to be illegally cremated. He discovered a major error when he checked the crematorium’s register, which recorded the names of victims of extrajudicial killings and their fathers, as well as the village where the bodies were marked as “unidentified.”
Kalra Mission Board
In 1995, a committee, called the Khalra Action Committee, was formed to pursue the case of unidentified corpses. S. Surinder Singh Ghariala has been appointed as Chairman, Balwinder Singh Chabhal General Sec. Satnam Singh Amishah served as spokesperson. Kalra exploited errors in crematorium records to uncover 25,000 unidentified bodies from 1984 to 1995. He investigated four major cases, including the murder of Behera in custody, the human shield case that resulted in the deaths of seven civilians, and the cremation of 25,000 unidentified corpses. In Punjab, about 2,000 police officers were killed for not cooperating with anti-terror operations. As secretary-general of the Akali Dal Human Rights Organization, Hara released copies of official documents of the secret cremation in Punjab province on January 16, 1995. The charges are based on an investigation into the number of people missing in the area and an investigation into the number of people missing in the area. Records of three crematoriums (Shamshanghat Patti, Taran Taran and Durgiana Mandir) located in Amritsar district (one of the first 13 districts in the state). In January 1995, Khalra’s organization filed a petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking an investigation into the disappearance and subsequent cremation. The High Court dismissed the petition on the grounds that it was “vague” and the petitioner organization lacked standing to file such a petition. On September 6, 1995, the Punjab police abducted Jaswant Singh Khalra from his residence in Amritsar. In 1998, the Kalla Action Committee was renamed as the Kalla Mission Committee.
die
Jaswant Singh Khalra was abducted by the Punjab police on September 6, 1995, while washing his car from his residence in Amritsar. However, police officials denied that Kalra was arrested or detained. He was imprisoned on 7 September 1995 at Chabal Police Station in Tarn Taran. On September 12, 1995, his wife Paramjit Kaur filed a habeas corpus petition in the Supreme Court of India, while the police continued to deny Khalra’s arrest. In November 1995, the SC ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate Khalra’s disappearance. Evidence unearthed by India’s Central Bureau of Investigation showed that Kalra was being held at Kang police station in Tarn Taran district after he was abducted by the police. However, the CBI later discovered that he was transferred from Kang police station on October 25, 1995 and his whereabouts thereafter were unknown. An eyewitness named Kuldeep Singh (former SWAT) claimed that it was SHO Satnam Singh who illegally detained Khalra at Tarn Taran Jabbar police station. Kuldeep Singh provided meals to Kahala during his illegal detention. Kuldeep Singh was recruited into the police force by former Taran Tarn senior superintendent of police Ajit Singh Sandhu. Sandhu, the main defendant in the case, committed suicide by jumping in front of a moving train in May 1997. Another name that came up during Kuldeep’s testimony was KPS Gill. One day, Kuldeep claimed, the police began beating Kalra, at the same time that Kuldeep was asked to get a glass of hot water. While Kuldeep was heating water, he heard two gunshots and rushed towards the room, where he headed to the parking lot on Satnam Singh’s instructions. Thereafter, the police threw Kalra’s body into a Maruti van and disposed of it near Harik Bridge on the Sutlej river.
trial
Paramjit Kaur filed a PIL on September 9, 1995, seeking justice for her husband’s death. It took a decade for Khalra’s custodial death case to reach trial, but in 2005, the nonprofit Ensaaf teamed up with private lawyers to bring the perpetrators to justice. In May 2006, the NGO Ensaaf, Human Rights Watch (HRW), REDRESS and the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice jointly called on India’s Central Bureau of Investigation to investigate and prosecute the murder of former police chief KPS Gill. In 2007, six police officers were convicted of Khalra’s murder, five of them were sentenced to life imprisonment, and the sixth was acquitted. SC believes that
The police eliminated the young men on the pretext of being militants and disposed of their bodies without keeping any records or performing last rites. “
According to the eyewitness statement of SPO Kuldeep Singh, former Punjab Police Commissioner KPS Gill detained and interrogated Khalra days before his murder. Jill interrogated Kara for half an hour. After Gill left, Kuldeep Singh heard SHO Satnam Singh telling Khalra that he could save himself if he listened and agreed to Gill’s advice. Although the court found Kuldeep Singh credible and accepted his testimony, prosecutors continued to investigate Gill’s alleged involvement in the murder. KPS Gill died in 2017 without trial. In 2007, the Punjab and Haryana High Court convicted four policemen (Sub-Inspector Satnam Singh, Surinder Pal Singh, Jasbir Singh and Superintendent of Police Pritipal Singh’s sentence was extended by seven years. The court later changed their sentences to life imprisonment. Although an appeal to the Supreme Court of India against the life sentence sentences of the four accused was dismissed, the Supreme Court upheld the decision of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
heritage
- In 2017, the Fresno, California, City Council approved a resolution to rename Victoria Park after Sikh human rights advocate Jaswant Singh Khalra.
- In 2022, it was announced that Punjabi singer and actor Diljit Dosanjh will play Jaswant Singh Khalra in his biopic. Some people have since staged protests on the sets of the Jaswant Singh Khalra biopic against Diljit Dosanjh’s portrayal of the character, calling him a “Victorian.” Deshi” and said he was westernized.
Facts/Trivia
- Three months before his disappearance, Kalra visited Canada at the invitation of the World Sikh Organization and highlighted his research into atrocities in Punjab at the World Sikh Organization’s 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, Kalra said he knew he could be killed but he had a mission to perform and he didn’t think he could complete it sitting outside Punjab.
- On the 25th anniversary of the death of Jaswant Singh Khalra in 2020, the City of Burnaby declared Jaswant Singh Khalra Day.
City of Burnaby announced on Jaswant Singh Khalra Day 25
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education