Jaswant Singh Khalra was a Punjab-based human rights activist who suddenly disappeared in 1995. The Punjab Police first regarded Khalra’s death as a suicide, but in 2005, six Punjab police officers were found guilty and given seven years in prison for kidnapping and killing Khalra.
The role of Jaswant Singh Khalra was crucial in unearthing proof that the police had kidnapped, killed, and cremated thousands of unidentified people during the days of terrorism in Punjab. Khalra worked as a bank director and hailed from Amritsar.
Khalra was one of several Sikhs who saw police brutality when terrorism was at its peak. Police officers could arrest individuals for whatever reason and were even involved in the killing of unarmed civilians thanks to the Punjab Police receiving extensive extrajudicial powers from the Indira Gandhi-led Centre government.
With an accusatory finger pointed at the police, Khalra made it his life’s work to compile a list of all the unlawful deaths and disappearances that took place after Bluestar. According to his research, Punjab Police killed over 2,000 police personnel who disobeyed their techniques in addition to participating in 25,000 illegal killings and cremations.
Global protests were prompted by Khalra’s study on 25,000 illegal cremations that took place in Punjab during the mid-1980s and mid-1990s during the height of the insurgency. This led the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to the conclusion that 2097 persons had been illegally cremated by the Punjab police in Tarn Taran district.
Now, a film, Punjab ’95 has been made on Khalra which will premiere at Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF)2023 in September this year.
The trailer of the film with actor Diljit Dosanjh in the lead was released on Monday, July 31. The film also stars Arjun Rampal and Suvinder Vicky, who has received a lot of praise for his prominent part in the Netflix series Kohhra. Directed by Honey Trehan and produced by Ronnie Screwvala’s production company RSVP Movies.
The movie, which was originally titled Ghallughara, made headlines after its producers sued the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) for delaying the censor certificate for more than six months and mandated 21 edits.