Arabic version: ابنة تستذكر نضال ناشط سيخي لم يُحسم من أجل العدالة
According to Al Jazeera, Navkiran Kaur Khalra says her family is still seeking truth, justice and accountability 30 years after her father, Punjab human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, was abducted and killed.
Khalra, a 42-year-old bank manager, investigated alleged disappearances and extrajudicial killings by Indian security forces during Punjab’s Sikh separatist movement in the 1980s. He petitioned India’s Supreme Court, alleging police had cremated 25,000 bodies marked “unidentified” and “unclaimed”. Police said the claim was exaggerated.
On September 6, 1995, police took Khalra from his home, his daughter said. The family initially searched for him believing he could return. In 1998, former Punjab special police officer Kuldip Singh became the prosecution’s key witness and testified about Khalra’s illegal detention, torture and killing. Khalra’s body was never recovered.
Five police officials are serving life sentences for the killing. Navkiran Kaur Khalra said the legal battle lasted 16 years but did not deliver justice, adding that many families whose relatives disappeared still lack death certificates and face difficulties accessing bank accounts, transferring property and settling inheritance claims.
Her father’s story was recently depicted in Satluj, a film blocked by India’s film censor board for three years and banned within 48 hours of its release on an OTT platform last month. Following its removal from streaming platforms in India, farmers’ organisations and local communities held public screenings across Punjab, she said.
