Avtar Singh Khanda, the UK-based chief of the Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF), passed away on Thursday after battling blood cancer for the past 15 days while receiving treatment at Sandwell Hospital and West Birmingham Hospital. He was in the news earlier this year for pulling down the Indian flag at the UK High Commission in London.
As readers eagerly seek more information about Khanda’s personal life, we delve into details about his father. Khanda was the son of Kulwant Singh Khukhrana, one of the key figures associated with the Khalistan Liberation Force. The KLF is a militant organization in Punjab, India, advocating for a separate Sikh state called Khalistan through armed struggle.
Kulwant Singh Khukhrana’s life took a turn a few months prior to the attack on Darbar Sahib. He was engaged to Charanjit Kaur, the daughter of Sardar Bood Singh from Moga district. However, he was subsequently arrested for the murder of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.
Kulwant Singh’s encounter with the communists during a student festival marked a pivotal moment in his life. He was summoned to the Golden Temple to meet Bhindranwale, a prominent figure in the Sikh neo-fundamentalist movement. It was there that Bhindranwale instructed Kulwant Singh to stop trimming his beard and embrace the path of a ‘true Singh’.
After the charges of murder were dropped by Bhindranwale’s family, Kulwant Singh got married and went underground with Balwant, his brother.
In 1989, under Kulwant Singh’s leadership, Gurjant Singh Budhsinghwala and other members of the KLF attacked an RSS meeting at Nehru Park in Moga. The violent incident resulted in the deaths of 21 RSS members, a police officer, a paramilitary home guard, and a couple who died in a bomb blast following the shooting. In total, 25 people lost their lives, and 31-35 others were injured.
During the same year, under Kulwant Singh’s leadership, the KLF was responsible for the killing of Charan Das, the head of a non-conforming Dalit religious group. Das had been accused of blasphemy against Guru Granth Sahib and was brutally murdered by KLF members.
Kulwant Singh had four brothers and three sisters, and his elder brother, Balwant Singh Khukhrana, also sacrificed his life in the Sikh Freedom movement. Kulwant completed his education up to the 10th grade at the local village school in Khukhrana before enrolling in Bhupindra Khalsa High School in the Moga district.