Jaswant Singh Khalra, a 42-year-old bank manager and human rights activist, was abducted from his home in Amritsar on September 6, 1995, and later killed by police. His body was never recovered. Khalra had been investigating thousands of cases of forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings carried out by Indian security forces during a separatist movement in Punjab in the 1980s and 1990s aimed at establishing an independent Sikh state called Khalistan.
Khalra’s activism intensified after close friends and their family members vanished. In 1995, he filed a petition with India’s Supreme Court alleging that police had cremated approximately 25,000 bodies labeled as unidentified and unclaimed. His work documenting alleged security force abuses made him a target. Following the assassination of Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh in August 1995, threats against Khalra intensified, though he refused police protection, stating he could not visit families of disappeared persons accompanied by police.
Following his disappearance, Khalra’s family spent years hoping he might return alive. It was not until 1998, when a former police officer testified about Khalra’s illegal detention and torture, that the family accepted he had been killed. Five police officials were subsequently convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for his murder. However, Khalra’s daughter has stated that despite convictions, justice remains incomplete, particularly given that thousands of other families continue seeking answers about their disappeared relatives.
Three decades after his death, interest in Khalra’s case has resurged following the release of a documentary film titled Satluj, which examines his life and work. The film was blocked within 48 hours of its initial release on a streaming platform, but community groups and activist organizations subsequently organized public screenings across Punjab and other regions, reigniting discussions about state accountability, the rule of law, and freedom of expression in India.
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