Khalistan movement
The first explicit call for Khalistan came in 1940, in a pamphlet that took the word as its title. The Khalistan movement is a campaign for a sovereign homeland for Sikhs in the Punjab region, an ethno-religious state that has never existed on any map. The call for a separate Sikh state had begun in the 1930s, as British rule in India neared its end.
The borders of the proposed country have never been fixed. Some groups want only the Sikh-majority Indian state of Punjab. Larger claims reach into Pakistani Punjab and into Chandigarh, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.
Few political ideas have had such an uneven life. For decades it lived at the margins, carried by exiles and waved away by officials. Later it became an armed insurgency, and the violence crossed continents. The insurgency faded, but the name did not.
This documentary asks three questions. Who first drew these maps, and what were they trying to win? Why did a demand once dismissed as fringe become something people killed and died for? And why does the idea still reach into elections and street protests in India, Canada and beyond?
When the Muslim League's Lahore Resolution demanded that Punjab become a Muslim state, the Akali Dal read it as an attempt to usurp historically Sikh ground. The Sikh party answered that Sikhs were a community separate from both Hindus and Muslims. One version of its vision cast Khalistan as a theocratic state led by the Maharaja of Patiala. A cabinet of representatives from other units would advise him. The country would include parts of present-day Indian Punjab, parts of Pakistani Punjab including Lahore, and the Simla Hill States.
In 1943 the Akali Dal backed a different plan, Azad Punjab, which was never meant to create a Sikh state. It proposed redrawing the province to cut away the overwhelmingly Muslim areas west of the Jhelum river. The party argued those lands were not truly Punjab and had been attached administratively under Maharaja Ranjit Singh. The target was a population of roughly 40% Muslim, 40% Hindu and 20% Sikh. No community would dominate, and Sikhs would hold the balance between the other two. Outside the Akali Dal the plan won little favour.
Sikhistan was bolder. V. S. Bhatti had proposed a Sikh nation of that name in 1940, again led by the Maharaja of Patiala. The idea returned in mid-1944 at the All-Parties Sikh Conference in Amritsar. Akali Dal Sikhs felt betrayed by the C. R. formula, which would have split the Sikh population into two halves.
Even its backers could not agree on the map. Giani Kartar Singh wanted the whole of Lahore, Karnal, Simla, Montgomery and Lyallpur districts. Baldev Singh pictured the Ambala, Jullunder and Lahore divisions. Master Tara Singh, who took up the cause, said only that a future Sikhistan would keep the right to federate with either Pakistan or India.
On the 22nd of March 1946 the Akali Dal pressed the demand on the Cabinet Mission, which dismissed it as unrealistic and impossible. The historian Tan Tai Yong reads the demand as a sign of desperation. In his account, Sikh leaders feared a "Muslim Raj" and copied the Muslim League to win representation in postcolonial Punjab. He adds that they knew the demand would not be taken seriously.
The numbers explain their anxiety. Before the partition of 1947, Sikhs held a majority in no district of British Punjab except Ludhiana, where they made up 41.6% of the population. Partition split the province between India and the new Pakistan, and most Sikhs and Hindus moved from the Pakistani side to India's Punjab. In some Pakistani districts the Sikh share had reached 19.8% in 1941. In Pakistan it fell to 0.1%. In India, Sikhs remained a minority in a Hindu-majority province. Afterwards, a Sikh publication called The Liberator argued for a Khalistan built from East Punjab and the Patiala and East Punjab States Union, with the Maharaja of Patiala as monarch.
The historian Harjot Singh Oberoi doubts that land was ever central to Sikh identity. The Guru Granth Sahib draws on saints from both North and South India. Major seats of the faith, such as Takht Sri Patna Sahib in Bihar and Hazur Sahib in Maharashtra, lie outside Punjab. In his account, leaders in the late 1930s and 1940s foresaw Muslim dominance in Pakistan and Hindu dominance in India. They therefore argued that Punjab belonged to Sikhs and Sikhs to Punjab, a claim the Akali Dal formalised in a resolution in March 1946. Oberoi concludes that Khalistan was never a major issue until it began to militarise in the late 1970s and 1980s.
The Akali Dal was established on the 14th of December 1920 as a Sikh party that sought to govern Punjab. After Indian independence it led the Punjabi Suba movement, which asked for a province for Punjabi people. Its maximal position was a sovereign state, and its minimal position was an autonomous state within India. Delhi refused at first. After the bloodshed of partition, officials worried that a Punjabi-majority state would again mean a state drawn on religious lines.
On the 7th of September 1966 Parliament passed the Punjab Reorganisation Act, effective from the 1st of November 1966. Punjab was divided into Punjab and Haryana, with certain areas going to Himachal Pradesh. Chandigarh became a centrally administered Union territory. The government of Indira Gandhi accepted the new Punjab but refused to make Chandigarh its capital or to make it autonomous. Many Sikhs felt the outcome fell short of what the movement's leaders had sought.
Two more resentments piled on. Punjab and Haryana now shared one capital. A canal system was also built over the Ravi, Beas and Sutlej rivers so that water could reach Haryana and Rajasthan, and Punjab would receive only 23% of it. After the Akali Dal lost the 1972 Punjab elections, it put forward the Anandpur Sahib Resolution in 1973. The document asked for radical devolution of power to the states. It also asked that Sikhism be recognised as a religion separate from Hinduism and that Chandigarh pass to Punjab. For some time it was largely forgotten.
In 1982 the Akali Dal and Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale joined hands to launch the Dharam Yudh Morcha, a campaign to implement the resolution. Thousands joined, hoping for a larger share of irrigation water and the return of Chandigarh. That November, Akali leader Harchand Singh Longowal announced that the party would disrupt the Asian Games in Delhi by sending workers to be arrested. A week before the Games, Bhajan Lal, the chief minister of Haryana, sealed the Delhi-Punjab border. Sikh visitors travelling to Delhi were frisked. Many Sikhs saw this as discriminatory and humiliating, and the Akalis managed only small, scattered protests. Yet many who had not backed the Akalis or Bhindranwale now began to sympathise. After the Games, a convention of Sikh veterans at the Darbar Sahib drew Major General Shabeg Singh, who later became Bhindranwale's military advisor.
A constitutional grievance added fuel. In February 1984 the Akali Dal began fresh agitation over Article 25, clause 2(b), which says that references to Hindus include Sikhs, Jainas and Buddhists. A Sikh couple marrying by their own rites had to register under the Special Marriage Act of 1954 or the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955.
Meanwhile the violence mounted. After six Hindu bus passengers were murdered in October 1983, emergency rule was imposed in Punjab and lasted more than a decade. Armed men were sheltering in gurdwaras, but the government said it could not enter them for fear of hurting Sikh sentiments. In a single six-month period of 1984, the state recorded 775 violent incidents, with 298 people killed and 525 injured.
Davinder Singh Parmar moved to London in 1954, and by his own account the first pro-Khalistan meeting he called drew fewer than 20 people. He was labelled a madman and won the support of exactly one person. He kept going anyway, and in the 1970s he raised the Khalistani flag in Birmingham.
In 1969, two years after losing the Punjab Assembly elections, the Indian politician Jagjit Singh Chohan moved to the United Kingdom to campaign for Khalistan. His proposed state took in Punjab, Himachal and Haryana, along with parts of Rajasthan. Chohan and Parmar met in 1970 and announced the movement at a London press conference. The Sikh community largely dismissed them as a fanatical fringe without support.
The war of 1971 between India and Pakistan changed Chohan's reach. He visited Pakistan as a guest of leaders such as Chaudhuri Zahoor Elahi, toured Nankana Sahib and several historic gurdwaras, and spread the idea of an independent Sikh state. The Pakistani press covered his remarks widely, and for the first time the international community, including India, heard the demand. According to Chohan, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto even proposed making Nankana Sahib the capital of Khalistan.
On the 13th of October 1971, Chohan was in the United States at the invitation of diaspora supporters. He placed an advertisement in the New York Times proclaiming an independent Sikh state. The publicity let him collect millions of dollars from the diaspora. It eventually brought charges in India relating to sedition and other crimes.
Chohan returned to India in 1977, travelled to Britain in 1979, and declared the formation of a Council of Khalistan at Anandpur Sahib on the 12th of April 1980. He named himself president and Balbir Singh Sandhu its Secretary General. In May 1980 Chohan announced the formation of Khalistan in London, while Sandhu made a similar announcement in Amritsar and released stamps and currency. Working from a building called Khalistan House, Chohan named a cabinet and declared himself president of a "Republic of Khalistan". He issued symbolic passports, postage stamps and Khalistan dollars. He also opened embassies in Britain and other European countries. It is reported that a wealthy Californian peach magnate helped him open an Ecuadorian bank account.
Chohan kept contact with groups in Canada, the United States and Germany, and with Bhindranwale, who was campaigning for a theocratic Sikh homeland. Even so, the movement stayed nearly invisible on the global political scene until June 1984.
Lieutenant General Kuldip Singh Brar, himself a Sikh, surrounded the Harmandir Sahib complex in Amritsar on the 3rd of June 1984. Operation Blue Star ran from the 1st to the 8th of June. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ordered it to remove Bhindranwale and his armed followers from the buildings of the Golden Temple, the most sacred site in Sikhism. In July 1983, Harchand Singh Longowal had invited Bhindranwale to take up residence in the complex, which the government later alleged he turned into an armoury and headquarters. Since the start of the Dharam Yudh Morcha, Khalistani militants had directly killed 165 Hindus and Nirankaris and 39 Sikhs opposed to Bhindranwale. A total of 410 people had died and 1,180 had been injured in Khalistani violence and riots.
Before the assault, Brar told his troops: "The action is not against the Sikhs or the Sikh religion; it is against terrorism." He told them anyone with strong religious sentiments could opt out without penalty. None did. The Army, supported by the Central Reserve Police Force, the Border Security Force and the Punjab Police, used a public address system to demand surrender. Nothing happened until 7:00 pm. The troops had grossly underestimated the militants, who fired anti-tank and machine-gun rounds from the fortified Akal Takht and held Chinese-made rocket-propelled grenade launchers. After a 24-hour shootout the Army wrested control of the complex. Bhindranwale was killed, and many of his followers escaped.
The casualty counts remain disputed. Army figures listed 83 dead and 249 injured, though Rajiv Gandhi later admitted that over 700 soldiers died. The Indian Government's official estimate was 493 militant and civilian casualties, with 1592 people apprehended. Independent estimates say over 5,000 civilians and only 200 militants were killed. UK Foreign Secretary William Hague blamed the high civilian toll on a full frontal assault that diverged from the advice of the UK military. Brar later said the government had "no other recourse". In his telling, the state machinery was in militant hands, a declaration of Khalistan was imminent, and Pakistan would have declared its support.
A striking counter-argument holds that the operation helped create the very movement it targeted. G.B.S. Sidhu, a former special secretary at India's Research and Analysis Wing, said the agency itself helped "build the Khalistan legend". Posted in Ottawa in 1976, he found "nothing amiss" during three years of watching the diaspora. He said the agency opened seven posts in Western Europe and North America in 1981 to counter activity that did not exist. He called the secessionist movement a "chimera" until the army operation. A New York Times article written weeks after the raid noted that Bhindranwale had said many times he sought only greater autonomy within the Indian Union. The writer Khushwant Singh observed that considerable Khalistan sentiment seemed to have arisen only after the raid. The Mitrokhin Archive adds a further claim. It says Soviet disinformation fed to Indira Gandhi through a recruit called "Agent S" pushed her toward the operation.
On the 31st of October 1984, two of her personal security guards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, both Sikhs, assassinated Indira Gandhi in New Delhi. They acted in retaliation for Blue Star. The killing set off the 1984 anti-Sikh riots across North India. The ruling Indian National Congress said the violence was spontaneous, while critics alleged its members had planned a pogrom. The Nanavati Commission concluded that Congress leaders including Jagdish Tytler, H. K. L. Bhagat and Sajjan Kumar had taken a direct or indirect role. Kamal Nath, accused of leading riots near Rakab Ganj, was cleared for lack of evidence. A joint report by two civil-liberties organisations named 16 significant politicians, 13 police officers and 198 others accused by survivors and eyewitnesses.
In 1985 the Rajiv-Longowal Accord offered the most serious political settlement of the era. Harchand Singh Longowal, back at the head of the Akali Dal, condemned Sikh extremist violence and declared that his party did not favour Khalistan. He and Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi agreed to set up commissions and independent tribunals on the Chandigarh issue and the river dispute. The deal laid the basis for an Akali Dal election victory. Militants who refused to give up the demand for Khalistan denounced it, and extremists assassinated Longowal. India pointed to a "foreign hand" and accused Pakistan of providing sanctuary, arms, money and moral support. Most of those accusations rested on circumstantial evidence.
On the 23rd of June 1985, a bomb destroyed a Boeing 747 operating Air India Flight 182 on the Montreal-London-Delhi-Bombay route, off the coast of Ireland. All 329 people aboard died, including 268 Canadian citizens, 27 British citizens and 24 Indian citizens. The same day, a luggage bomb linked to the plot exploded at Narita International Airport in Tokyo. It was meant for Air India Flight 301 and killed two baggage handlers. The total was 331 dead across five countries. The main suspects were members of the Sikh separatist group Babbar Khalsa. In 2007 a Canadian Commission of Inquiry examined reports that Lakhbir Singh Rode had masterminded the blasts. Two separate Canadian inquiries nonetheless determined that the mastermind was a Canadian named Talwinder Singh Parmar. Inderjit Singh Reyat pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2003 and was the only person convicted. He received fifteen years for assembling the bombs.
On the 26th of January 1986, militants occupying the Golden Temple again, from the All India Sikh Students Federation and the Damdami Taksal, called a Sarbat Khalsa and passed a resolution in favour of Khalistan. They dissolved the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, the only body with authority to appoint the jathedar. Their own appointee refused to follow their bidding, so the militant leader Gurbachan Singh Manochahal appointed himself by force. On the 29th of April 1986, separatists at the Akal Takht declared an independent Khalistan. Armed militants of the period called themselves kharku. Groups such as the Khalistan Commando Force, formed by the Sarbat Khalsa in 1986, waged the insurgency. Attacks included the 1987 Lalru bus massacre and the 1991 killings in Ludhiana.
The ballot box told a harsher story. In the 1989 parliamentary elections, Sikh separatist representatives won 10 of Punjab's 13 national seats and held the most popular support. According to the account, the Indian National Congress cancelled those elections and hosted what became known as a Khaki election. Separatists boycotted it, turnout was 24%, and Congress won. By the end of 1993, most of the separatist leadership was gone and the moderates were suppressed.
Two episodes from the 1990s show the wider reach of the violence. On the 30th of September 1990, about 200 militants attacked the house of Balwinder Singh in Bhikhiwind, Tarn Taran. The Sandhu family fought back with weapons supplied by police, killed several attackers and forced the rest to flee, and they received the Shaurya Chakra. In August 1991, Julio Ribeiro, then India's ambassador to Romania, was wounded in an assassination attempt in Bucharest. Sikh groups later claimed the kidnapping of Liviu Radu, the Romanian chargé d'affaires in New Delhi, who was released unharmed after Sikh politicians criticised the action. In October 1991 the New York Times reported that Indian security forces or Sikh militants were killing 20 or more people a day. The scholar Ian Talbot has written that all sides, including the Army, the police and the militants, committed murder, rape and torture.
On the 31st of August 1995, a suicide bomb killed Punjab's Chief Minister Beant Singh. Babbar Khalsa claimed responsibility, though security authorities doubted its involvement. A 2006 press release from the United States Embassy in New Delhi pointed instead to the Khalistan Commando Force.
Kanwar Pal Singh Gill, a Sikh police officer, led the Punjab Police through its fiercest campaign against the militants. Several militant leaders were killed, and others surrendered and were rehabilitated. Gill credited the decline to a change in policy, which added enough police and security forces to deal with the militancy. He also credited clear political will from the government, without interference. The campaign has its critics. Human Rights Watch reported that since 1984 government forces had used arbitrary arrest, indefinite detention without trial, torture and summary executions. Family members were often detained and tortured to reveal where wanted relatives were hiding. Rights activists allege that thousands of suspects died in staged shootouts and that thousands of bodies were cremated without identification or post-mortems. Amnesty International alleged cases of disappearance, torture, rape and unlawful detention. By December 2002, between 75 and 100 police officers had been convicted.
The movement also undermined itself. According to Kumar in 1997, the name Khalistan was wishful thinking, and it expressed only revulsion against the Indian establishment without offering an alternative. In later years the militants lacked an ideological motivation, and criminals and government loyalists entering their ranks split the groups further. Puri, Judge and Sekhon, writing in 1999, suggested that under-educated young men with poor job prospects joined for the primary purpose of fun. Anthropological analysis points to excitement and expressions of masculinity. They found that pursuing Khalistan itself motivated only 5% of militants.
Divisions among Sikhs ran deep. According to Pettigrew, non-Jat urban Sikhs did not want to live in a country of "Jatistan". Many people in the region traditionally preferred police and military careers, so the Punjab Police had a majority of Jat Sikhs. Gill himself called the conflict "Jat against Jat". Moderate factions of the Akali Dal under Parkash Singh Badal won back political positions in the state, including in the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee elections. Traditional parties reasserted their dominance over the factions associated with militants. Sikh groups such as the Khalsa Raj Party and the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) kept pursuing Khalistan through non-violent means.
Observers soon began writing its obituary. The US Department of State found that Sikh extremism decreased significantly from 1992 to 1997, though a 1997 report noted that cells remained active internationally. In 1999 the commentator Kuldip Nayar wrote that the Sikh masses had rejected terrorists. By 2001, Sikh extremism and the demand for Khalistan had all but abated. Mark Juergensmeyer interviewed a militant who told him "the movement is over", because colleagues had been killed, imprisoned or driven into hiding and public support was gone. In 2007 Simrat Dhillon wrote that the movement had lost its popular support in India and in the diaspora. A group called the Shaheed Khalsa Force claimed the 1997 marketplace bombings in New Delhi. It has never been heard of since.
Years before the 1971 war, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, then a member of General Yahya Khan's military regime, had spoken of Kashmir being taken at any price, "even the Sikh Punjab and turned into Khalistan." After Bhutto, General Zia-ul Haq tried to reverse the old antipathy between Sikhs and Muslims by restoring Sikh shrines in Pakistan and opening them to pilgrims. Expatriate Sikhs from England and North America who visited were at the forefront of the calls for Khalistan, and in Pakistan they met Khalistani propaganda that could not be spread openly in India. The ISI chief, General Abdul Rahman, opened a cell to support the "freedom struggle against India". Sikhs in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States arranged for cadres to travel to Pakistan for military and financial help.
Gurdwaras became the diaspora's organising centres. Some rooms displayed pictures of Khalistani leaders beside paintings of martyrs from Sikh history. Factions fought for control of gurdwaras and their money, and the fights between pro and anti-Khalistan groups sometimes brought violence and bloodshed in Britain and North America. The first International Convention of Sikhs met in New York in April 1981 with some 200 delegates. The third convention, in Slough, Berkshire, in April 1987, aimed to build unity in the Khalistan movement. Khalistan was a member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization from the 24th of January 1993 to the 4th of August 1993. The suspension was made permanent on the 22nd of January 1995.
In 2021 Sikhs for Justice began an unofficial, non-binding "referendum" on creating a Khalistan state that would include the whole of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, plus several districts of other Indian states. Votes have been held in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Italy, England and the United States, and news reports say hundreds of thousands of Sikhs took part. At a vote in Melbourne in January 2023, two brawls broke out between Khalistan supporters and pro-India demonstrators. Two people were injured and two men were arrested.
In August 2022, Amritpal Singh rose to prominence as head of Waris Punjab De, an organisation that backed pro-Khalistan figures. On the 18th of March 2023, Indian authorities began a crackdown on the group and launched a manhunt. Singh evaded capture for 35 days and was arrested on the 23rd of April 2023. Protests among diaspora Sikhs followed. Most passed without incident, but in London a mob attacked the Indian High Commission and tried to pull down the Indian flag. In San Francisco, Khalistani supporters set the Indian consulate on fire on the 2nd of July 2023, and the fire department quickly put it out.
On the 18th of June 2023, Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot dead in the parking lot of a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia. India accused him of orchestrating targeted killings and had unsuccessfully sought his extradition. A Globe and Mail report a year later said some Canadian security officials doubted there was enough evidence to arrest him and distrusted Indian intelligence evidence. The same report said interviews showed he was steeped in Sikh extremism. Journalists in Canada have also been targeted. Radio host Deepak Punj was assaulted in February 2022, and in October 2024 Rishi Nagar was attacked after reporting on firearms arrests at a Calgary gurdwara. Peel Police suspended an off-duty sergeant after the November 2024 clash at the Hindu Sabha Mandir in Brampton. On the night of the 5th of May 2026, the Khalistan Liberation Army claimed twin blasts in Jalandhar.
At the ballot box the cause is small but visible. The Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar), the only pro-Khalistan party recognised by India's Election Commission, contested 81 of 117 seats in the 2022 Punjab election. It won 386,176 votes, or 2.48%. In 2024, its leader Simranjit Singh Mann lost the Sangrur seat with 18.55% of the vote, two years after winning a by-election there with 35.61%. In the 2024 general election in Punjab, the party ran in 12 of 13 constituencies and won none. Two independents tied to the movement did win. Amritpal Singh took Khadoor Sahib with 404,430 votes while incarcerated. Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa, son of the assassin of Indira Gandhi, took Faridkot with 298,062. All pro-Khalistan candidates together gathered 1,219,516 votes, about 9% of roughly 13,530,000 cast.
Updated
Common questions
What is the Khalistan movement?
The Khalistan movement is a separatist campaign to create a sovereign homeland for Sikhs, an ethno-religious state called Khalistan in the Punjab region. Its proposed boundaries vary between groups.
When did the Khalistan movement begin?
The call for a separate Sikh state began in the 1930s, and the first explicit call for Khalistan came in 1940 in a pamphlet titled "Khalistan". The movement became militant in the late 1970s and 1980s.
What was Operation Blue Star in the Khalistan movement?
Operation Blue Star was an Indian military operation ordered by Indira Gandhi and carried out from the 1st to the 8th of June 1984. It aimed to remove Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his armed followers from the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar. Bhindranwale was killed.
Why did the Khalistan movement decline in Punjab?
The Khalistan movement declined because of a heavy police crackdown under Punjab police chief K. P. S. Gill, factional infighting and a loss of support among Sikhs in Punjab. Militants also lacked a clear political concept of Khalistan.
Who was responsible for the Air India Flight 182 bombing linked to the Khalistan movement?
Two Canadian inquiries determined that Talwinder Singh Parmar masterminded the bombing of Air India Flight 182 on the 23rd of June 1985, which killed 329 people. The main suspects were members of Babbar Khalsa. Inderjit Singh Reyat was the only person convicted.
Which party represents the Khalistan movement in Indian elections?
Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) is the only pro-Khalistan party recognised by the Election Commission of India. In the 2022 Punjab Legislative Assembly election it won 2.48% of the vote.
What role did the Sikh diaspora play in the Khalistan movement?
The Sikh diaspora supplied financial and diplomatic support, with gurdwaras serving as sites for organising and raising funds. Jagjit Singh Chohan and Davinder Singh Parmar launched the movement from London in 1970.
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- 81NewsAir India bombmaker sent to holding centreKim Bolan — 9 February 2008
- 82NewsConvicted Air India bomb-builder Inderjit Singh Reyat gets bailCBC News — 9 July 2008
- 83"Sikh Temple Sit-In Is a Challenge for Punjab." The New York Times. 2 February 1986.
- 84Sarbat Khalsa and GurmataI. Singh — 10 July 2012
- 86"Gunmen Slaughter 32 on Bus in India in Bloodiest Attack of Sikh Campaign". The Philadelphia Inquirer, 7 July 1987. Page A03.
- 87NewsEnvoy of Romania Abducted in IndiaEdward Gargan — 10 October 1991
- 88Amnesty International report on PunjabAmnesty International — 20 January 2003
- 89The Tribune, Chandigarh, India – PunjabTribuneindia.com
- 90SAD (A) to contest the coming SGPC elections on Khalistan issue: MannPunjabNewsline.com — 14 January 2010
- 92NewsGunmen Wound India Ambassador21 August 1991
- 93MagazineWorld Notes India21 October 1991
- 94NewsSecret Injustice: The Harpal Singh Case Part 1: Flashback17 September 2003
- 95BookUnrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization: yearbookMary Kate Simmons — Martinus Nijhoff Publishers — 1998
- 96Issue Paper INDIA: Sikhs in Punjab 1994–95Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada — February 1996
- 97Mahmood, Cynthia. 5 May 1997. "Fax to Ted Albers." Orono, Maine: Resource Information Center.
- 98Documentation, Information and Research Branch. 17 February 1997. "India: Information from four specialists on the Punjab, Response to Information Request #IND26376.EX." Ottawa: Immigration and Refuge
- 99Protecting the Killers: A Policy of Impunity in Punjab, India: I. SummaryHuman Rights Watch — 9 October 2006
- 102India: A vital opportunity to end impunity in PunjabAmnesty International USA
- 103ASWHuman Rights Watch — 1992
- 104India: Time to Deliver Justice for Atrocities in PunjabHuman Rights Watch — 18 October 2007
- 105Document – India: Break the cycle of impunity and torture in Punjab | Amnesty InternationalAmnesty International — 2003
- 106Punjab: Four Khalistan Zindabad Force terrorists arrested in Taran TaranManjeet Sehgal — 23 September 2019
- 108NewsThe Ghost of KhalistanBalbair Punj — 16 June 2005
- 110High alert declared after IB picks up intercepts on possible terror attack in PunjabVicky Nanjappa — 26 December 2019
- 111NewsOfficial Resolutions From Sarbat Khalsa 201511 November 2015
- 112Khalistan slogans raised as Mann comes to meet Khalsa25 July 2015
- 114Responses to Information Requests5 June 2018
- 117The Sikh unrest and the Indian state: politics, personalities, and historical retrospectiveRam Narayan Kumar — Ajanta — 1997
- 118NewsNo chance of another Khalistan movement in Punjab: Defence experts19 March 2016
- 119The Sikh Diaspora and the Quest for Khalistan: A Search for Statehood or for Self-preservation?Simrat Dhillon — Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies — December 2007
- 123NewsPolice investigating attack on Brampton radio host after remarks on Punjabi actor24 February 2022
- 125NewsRadical activist Amritpal storms Ajnala police station with supporters, secures aide's releaseChitleen K. Sethi — 23 February 2023
- 128Fiery orator, 'Bhindranwale 2.0' – who's Amritpal Singh, new 'head' of Deep Sidhu's Waris Punjab DeSonal Matharu — 25 October 2022
- 133NewsAmritpal Singh A radical preacher25 February 2023
- 134Khalistan: The outlawed Sikh separatist movement that has Indian authorities on edgeRhea Mogul — 22 March 2023
- 137NewsJournalist allegedly assaulted as Punjab tensions spill over into B.C.Simon Little et al.
- 138NewsIndian High Commission: Diplomat summoned after London protestBBC News — 20 March 2023
- 145NewsCanadian police frees Khalistani 'separatist' Hardeep Nijjar after 24 hours in custodyAnirudh Bhattacharyya — Hindustan Times — 27 April 2018
- 148NewsUS condemns vandalism at Indian consulate in San Francisco4 July 2023
- 149News'Heated' demonstration at Indian consulate in Toronto sees one arrested9 July 2023
- 156Calgary police investigating weekend assault of radio host1 October 2024
- 159Canadian radio journalist Rishi Nagar attacked by Khalistani groups in CanadaAbhinav Sharma — 3 October 2024
- 160Man threatened outside NE temple, two arrested: Calgary policeNadia Moharib — 30 September 2024
- 161RED FM Calgary host says attack will not stop his journalismJonathan Bradley — 1 October 2024
- 162UPDATED: Poilievre, Smith say they are disturbed by attack on RED FM Calgary hostJonathan Bradley — 2 October 2024
- 164'This is not a Hindu and Sikh battle': The complex history behind protests that erupted at Brampton temples this week over Indian consular visitsRaju Mudhar et al. — 9 November 2024
- 165Police increase their presence at Hindu temple in Brampton after protestBryann Aguilar — 3 November 2024
- 1663 arrested and charged after protest at Brampton Hindu temple, police sayZone Justice et faits divers- ICI.Radio-Canada.ca — 4 November 2024
- 171NewsViolent clashes erupt outside consular camp at Hindu temple in Canada's Brampton4 November 2024
- 172Another person charged following violent demonstrations in Peel RegionJoanna Lavoie — 9 November 2024
- 175Khalistani extremist Inderjit Singh Gosal arrested in Canada on firearms charges23 September 2025
- 177NewsJalandhar blast news: Twin explosions near military areas in Punjab stoke anxiety; AAP govt under fire from OppositionVikas Vasudeva — 2026-05-06
- 179NewsPro-Khalistan separatists Amritpal and Sarabjeet lead over rivalsJatin Takkar — 4 June 2024
- 180Amritpal, Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa — Sikh radicals' poll victories pose challenge for Mann govtChitleen K. Sethi — 5 June 2024
- 183Modern History of PunjabJ. C. Aggarwal et al. — Concept Publishing Company — 1992
- 184Puri, Harish K., Paramjit Singh Judge, and Jagrup Singh Sekhon. 1999. Terrorism in Punjab: Understanding Grassroots Reality. New Delhi: Har-Anand Publications. pp. 68–71.
- 186Currently listed entities (terrorist organizations-ed)Public Safety Canada
- 187NewsSikh politics in Canada. Symbols and suits. Sikh extremism enters mainstream Canadian politicsTerry Milewski — CBC — 28 June 2007
- 188Proscribed terrorist groupsUK Office for Security and Counter Terrorism
- 189Terrorist Exclusion ListU. S. Bureau of Counterterrorism and Countering Violent Extremism — 29 December 2004
- 190Appendix F: Countering Terrorism on the Economic FrontUS Department of State
- 191Terrorism in ContextPennsylvania State University Press — 1995
- 192Encyclopedia of modern worldwide extremists and extremist groupsStephen E. Atkins — Greenwood Publishing Group — 2004
- 193Foreign Terrorist OrganizationsU. S. Department of State — 8 April 2008
- 194Law Enforcement Cases: International Narcotics Control Strategy Report: Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement AffairsUS Department of State — March 2008
- 1951995 Patterns of Global TerrorismOffice of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism — Federation of American Scientists — April 1996
- 196NewsBus explosion in India kills at least 14: It's the second bombing in two daysAnita Pratap — CNN — 22 May 1996
- 198NewsKZF behind Jalandhar blasts19 June 2006
- 199Patterns of Global Terrorism: 1997 – appendix BU. S. Department of State — 1997
- 200NewsIt is fundamentalism againKuldip Nayar — 22 February 1999
- 201Jodhka (2001)Jodhka — 2001
- 202From Bhindranwale to Bin Laden: Understanding Religious ViolenceMark Juergensmeyer — Self — 14 October 2004
- 203BookEncyclopedia of Social Movement MediaJohn D. H. Downing — Sage — 2011
- 204BookHindu Nationalism in the Indian Diaspora: Transnational Politics and British MulticulturalismEdward T. G. Anderson — Oxford University Press — 1 January 2024
- 205U.S. Court Convicts Khalid Awan for Supporting Khalistan Commando ForceThe United States Attorney's Office — 20 December 2006
- 206NewsCanadian gets 14 years for funding terrorists13 September 2007
- 207News200 Pak organisations raise funds for terror: IBVicky Nanjappa — 10 June 2008
- 208NewsIndia Talks of C.I.A. Role in UnrestJames M. Markham — 16 June 1984
- 209CIA, ISI encouraged Sikh terrorism26 July 2007
- 210US, Pak ISI had a hand in Punjab militancy: Book26 July 2007
- 211NewsU.S. prosecutors allege assassination plot of Sikh separatist directed by Indian government employeeEllen Nakashima et al. — 29 November 2023
- 212NewsSikh extremism spread fast in Canadaexpressindia.com — 23 May 2007
- 213NewsSikh extremism in Canada mushroomed very quickly23 May 2007
- 214NewsThe reign of terror is still thereJim Brown — 22 November 2007
- 215NewsA true Sikh martyr: Jonathan Kay on the 10th anniversary of the assassination of Tara Singh HayerJonathan Kay — 17 November 2008
- 216BookLoss of Faith: How the Air-India Bombers Got Away With MurderKim Bolan — McClelland & Stewart — 2006
- 217NewsTestimony: Babbar Khalsa Ordered Tara Singh Hayer SlayingCanWest News Service — 14 December 2003
- 218NewsCall for end to Sikh murder mysteryChris Summers — BBC News — 2 June 2000
- 219NewsCall for police to solve Sikh murderChris Summers — BBC News — 17 March 2005
- 220Netfirms | This site is temporarily unavailableWorldsikh.ca
- 221NewsSikh organization sues CBCSan Grewal — 11 July 2007
- 222NewsCanadian journalist hits out at Sikh extremism1 July 2007
- 223NewsSikh Terrorism Enters Politics in CanadaRobert Morley — The Trumpet
- 224NewsIndia PM warns against renewed Sikh extremismBarry Thorne — Radio Netherlands Worldwide — 6 March 2008
- 225NewsSikh separatist threat on rise in Canada: Indian PM warns of resurgent threat in CanadaKim Bolan — 11 March 2008
- 226NewsAmarinder Singh meets Justin Trudeau and Canada's 'Khalistani sympathiser' minister21 February 2018
- 227Khalistan figures in Trudeau-Amarinder talks, Punjab CM hands over list of 9 Canada-based radicalsSurjit Singh et al. — 21 February 2018
- 228Jagmeet Singh defends speaking at Sikh separatist rally in 2015Amanda Connolly
- 229NewsKhalistan no issue either in Canada or Punjab, says Sukhbir Badal23 February 2018
- 230Khalistan: A project of PakistanTerry Milewski — Macdonald-Laurier Institute — September 2020
- 231NewsIndia expels Canadian diplomat, escalating tensions after Trudeau accuses India in Sikh's killingKrutika Pathi — 19 September 2023
- 233NewsTrudeau accuses India in killing of Sikh leader on Canadian soil18 September 2023
- 236NewsNancy Grewal death: Who killed the Sikh influencer in Canada7 March 2026
- 238NewsCanada declares Khalistan extremists as 'national security threat'PTI — 2026-05-03
- 239Operations and analysisCanadian Security Intelligence Service — 2026-05-01
- 240NewsCanada spy agency warns Khalistani extremism poses a threat to national securityKshitij Bhardwaj — 4 May 2026
- 241Sikh extremists using Canada to 'fund & promote violence in India'—Canada intel reportKeshav Padmanabhan — 2026-05-03
- 242VideoCanada Spy Agency Admits Khalistani Threat to Security Vantage on Firstpost N18GFirstpost — 2026-05-04
- 243NewsCanada Declares Khalistani Extremists "National Security Threat"2026-05-04
- 244NewsSikh separatists 'funded from UK'BBC News — 4 March 2008
- 245NewsTRANSCRIPT OF "FILE ON 4"- 'SIKH GROUPS'Amardeep Bassey — BBC News — 26 February 2008
- 247UK Terrorism Act - 21 proscribed organisationsMarch 2001
- 248News21 groups banned under new terror lawRichard Norton-Taylor — 1 March 2001
- 249Terrorism: What You Need To Know About U.S. SanctionsU.S. Department of Treasury
- 250NewsKen's adviser is linked to terror groupAndrew Gilligan — 21 April 2008
- 251NewsSikh civil servant who backs 'martyr' is now on TfL boardAndrew Gilligan — 21 April 2008
- 252NewsSikh leader solicits supportKim Bolan — 18 February 2008
- 253Proscribed terrorist groups or organisationsHome Office
- 254NewsSikh separatists 'funded from UK'BBC — 4 March 2008
- 255The nation's Tortured Body: Violence, representation, and the formation of a Sikh "Diaspora"Brian Keith Axel — Duke University Press — 2001
- 256Demystifying KashmirNavnita Chadha Behera — Pearson Education India — 2007
- 257Diaspora Involvement in Insurgencies: Insights from the Khalistan and Tamil Eelam MovementsC. Christine Fair — 2005
- 258Pakistan: Between Mosque and MilitaryHusain Haqqani — Carnegie Endowment for International Peace — 2010
- 259Looking Back at the Khalistan Movement: Some Recent Researches on Its Rise and DeclineSurinder S. Jodhka — 21 April 2001
- 260Sikh Revivalist MovementsSurjit Jolly — Gitanjali Publishing House — 1988
- 261Fighting for Faith and NationCynthia Keppley Mahmood — University of Pennsylvania Press — 1996
- 262The Sikhs of the Punjab: Unheard Voices of State and Guerrilla ViolenceJoyce Pettigrew — Zed Books — 1995
- 263Ethnic Conflict in India: A Case-Study of PunjabGurharpal Singh — Palgrave Macmillan UK — 2000
- 264BookPakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate: Covert Action and Internal OperationsOwen L. Sirrs — Routledge — 2016
- 265India and Pakistan: Inventing the NationIan Talbot — Bloomsbury Academic — 2000
- 266The Khalistan Movement in Punjab, India, and the Post-Militancy Era: Structural Change and New Political CompulsionsVirginia Van Dyke — 2009
- 267BookPunjab, the Knights of FalsehoodKanwar Pal Singh Gill — Har-Anand Publications — 1997
- 268The Punjab Mass Cremations Case: India Burning the Rule of LawEnsaaf — January 2007
- 269Protecting the Killers: A Policy of Impunity in Punjab, IndiaJaskaran Kaur et al. — Human Rights Watch — October 2007
- 270Punjab Police: Fabricating Terrorism Through Illegal Detention and TortureMie Lewis et al. — Ensaaf — 5 October 2005
- 271Violent Deaths and Enforced Disappearances During the Counterinsurgency in Punjab, India: A Preliminary Quantitative AnalysisRomesh Silva et al. — Ensaaf and the Benetech Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) — 26 January 2009
- 2721984 Sikhs KristallnachtParvinder Singh — 2009
- 273Language, Religion and Politics in North IndiaPaul R. Brass — Cambridge University Press — 1974
- 274Sikh Militant Movements in CanadaMaryam Razavy — 2006
- 275South Asia: democracy, discontent and societal conflictsGopal Singh — Anamika Pub. — 1998
- 276History of Sikh Struggles: (1946-1966)Gurmit Singh — South Asia Books — 1989
- 277Punjab Under Siege: A Critical AnalysisIqbal Singh — Allen, McMillan, and Enderson — 1986
- 278The SikhsPatwant Singh — John Murray — 1999
- 279Political economy of the Punjab: an insider's accountPritam Singh — M.D. Publications — 1997
- 280Federalism, Nationalism and Development: India and the Punjab EconomyPritam Singh — Routledge — 2008
- 281The Sikhs in HistorySangat Singh — S. Singh — 1995
- 282Khalistan: An Academic AnalysisSatinder Singh — Amar Prakashan — 1982
- 283State Politics in IndiaSadhna Sharma — Mittal Publications — 1995
- 284Religion and Nationalism in India: The case of the PunjabHarnik Deol — Routledge — 2000
- 285Indian Democracy Derailed – Politics and PoliticiansSrikanta Ghosh — APH Publishing — 1997
- 286Tragedy of PunjabKuldip Nayar et al. — Vision Books — 1985
- 287The Foreign Policy of Pakistan: Ethnic Impacts on Diplomacy 1971–1994Mehtab Ali Shah — I.B.Tauris — 1997
- 288Beyond Khalistan? Sikh diasporic identity and critical international theory1Giorgio Shani — 2005
- 289Sikh Nationalism and Identity in a Global AgeGiorgio Shani — Routledge — 2008
- 290Leveling Crowds: Ethnonationalist conflicts and collective violence in South AsiaStanley Jeyaraja Tambiah — University of California Press — 1996
- 291Axel, The Nation's Tortured Body (2011) p. 101–Axel, The Nation's Tortured Body — 2011