Gurjant Singh Budhsinghwala

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Bhai

Gurjant Singh Budhsinghwala
Nickname(s)Budhsinghwala
Born1964 (1964)
Village Budhsinghwala, Faridkot district, Punjab, India
Died29 July 1992(1992-07-29) (aged 27–28)
Ludhiana, Punjab, India
AllegianceKhalistan Liberation Force
Years of service1986 - 1992
Battles/warsInsurgency in Punjab

Gurjant Singh Budhsinghwala (1964 - 29 July 1992) was the third chief of the Khalistan Liberation Force.

Early life and family[edit]

Gurjant Singh was born in the village of Budhsinghwala, District Faridkot in 1964. He had four siblings — one sister and three brothers. He was learned, although after being tortured by the police multiple times and his grandfather being killed by Punjab Police, as he was a religious Amritdhari Sikh, he joined the KLF in 1986.[1]

Participation in the Khalistan Movement[edit]

Gurjant Singh's grandfather died in 1984 when Indian Security Forces opened indiscriminate firing on his home, even though he participated in no crimes. Gurjant Singh took revenge and killed top Punjab Police officers including AS Brar and SSP Patiala.[citation needed]

Budhsinghwala commanded of a faction of Khalistan Liberation Force.[2]

India Today's Volume 17 mentioned that Budhsinghwala was responsible for the killings and injury of key police officers and politicians.[3][4]

Death[edit]

Budhsinghwala was killed in a police encounter on 29 July 1992, in Ludhiana, when he and other members of KLF were meeting. The firefight took several hours. Police stated that Singh was killed in the house where meeting was taking place, while some witnesses claim that he was killed in an alleyway 50 metres (160 ft) away from the house. His body was not returned to his family and was secretly cremated as police feared that his body might be used as a propaganda tool.[5] At the time of his death, he was wanted in 37 cases of assassination.[4][need quotation to verify]

After Budhsinghwala's death, Dr Pritam Singh Sekhon succeeded him as head of the KLF.[6]

References[edit]

  1. Pettigrew, Joyce (1995). The Sikhs of the Punjab: unheard voices of State and Guerilla violence. Zed Books. ISBN 978-1-85649-355-0. Retrieved 19 November 2013.
  2. "Death report exaggerated". The Independent. London. 29 August 1992. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
  3. India Today. Aroon Purie for Living Media India Limited. July 1992. Retrieved 19 November 2013.
  4. 4.0 4.1 Joshi, Manoj (1993). Combating Terrorism in Punjab: Indian Democracy in Crisis. Research Institute for the Study of Conflict and Terrorism. Retrieved 19 November 2013.
  5. "IHRO Human Right Watch". Ihro.in. Archived from the original on 7 April 2014. Retrieved 6 October 2012.
  6. "The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Ludhiana Stories". Tribuneindia.com. Retrieved 16 October 2012.

External links[edit]

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