Daughter recalls 1995 abduction of Sikh activist and ongoing fight for justice
Navkiran Kaur Khalra recounts her father Jaswant Singh Khalra's 1995 disappearance and the decades-long struggle for accountability.
In the early morning of September 6, 1995, human-rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra was taken by police outside his Amritsar home and subsequently murdered, with his remains never found. Khalra’s work exposed thousands of enforced disappearances and unlawful killings linked to the security forces’ crackdown on the Khalistan movement in the 1980s. Although five police officials have been sentenced to life imprisonment for his killing, countless other cases remain unresolved, leaving families in prolonged uncertainty.
A feature film, Satluj, aiming to shed light on Khalra’s life, was removed from Indian streaming platforms for “security concerns,” yet Sikh groups organized public viewings throughout Punjab and overseas. In an interview, Khalra’s daughter Navkiran Kaur Khalra describes the day of the abduction, the family’s futile attempts to locate him, and the broader impact of his activism on the community’s fight for justice.
Why it matters
The story highlights ongoing human-rights challenges in Punjab and the struggle for accountability decades after state-linked violence.
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