Babbar Khalsa
Encyclopedia
Babbar Khalsa also known as Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), is a Sikh
armed organisation based in India
. Many consider the Babbar Khalsa a Resistance movement
, and it played a prominent role in the Punjab insurgency
. Babbar Khalsa International was created in 1978, after a number of Sikhs were killed in clashes with the Nirankari
sect. It was active throughout 1980s in the Punjab insurgency
but its influence declined in the 1990s after several senior members were killed in encounter killings with police. Babbar Khalsa International has since been declared to be a terrorist
organization in many countries, including India, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. On March 13, Jagtar Singh Tara split from the Babbar Khalsa to form the Khalistan Tiger Force for undisclosed reasons.
who went to protest against a gathering of the rival Nirankari
sect. The confrontation led to the killing, and in the eyes of the AKJ, murder of thirteen of demonstrators. When a criminal case was filed against the Nirankari leader, he had his case transferred to neighboring Haryana state, where he was acquitted the following year. This gave rise to new organizational expressions of Sikh aspirations outside the Akali party, and an angry sentiment that if the government and judiciary would not prosecute enemies of Sikhism, taking extrajudical measures could be justified to avenge the death of Sikhs. Among the chief proponents of this attitude were the militant Babbar Khalsa founded by the widow, Bibi Amarjit Kaur of the Akhand Kirtani Jatha
, whose husband Fauja Singh had been killed after heading the march in Amritsar. Indo-Canadian Talwinder Singh Parmar
was put in charge of the Madhya wing of the Babbar Khalsa in 1998, with Jagdev SIngh Mehra remaining the overall chief or "Jathedar". "Wadhawa Singh Babbar" and "Mehal Singh Babbar" were assigned as vice-Jathedars.
Rivals were the Damdami Taksal, the Dal Khalsa, formed with the object of demanding a sovereign Sikh state, and the All India Sikh Students Federation
, which was banned by the government.
When Gurbachan Singh
, the Nirankari Baba responsible for what rivals considered the death of thirteen Sikh martyrs in Amritsar was shot to death on April 24, 1980, it was a member of the Akhand Kirtani Jatha, Ranjit Singh who surrendered and admitted to the assassination. Unlike other groups in the Punjab insurgency
, Babbar Khalsa was more concerned with propagating the ideas of the Akhand Kirtani Jatha
than with the actual Khalistan movement
.
During its highest period of activity Babbar Khalsa International had 27 subgroups operating under its direction. It specialized in the use of bombs, particularly RDX
.
" Only Inderjit Singh Reyat who admitted to building the bomb, was convicted in the Air India bombing.
The bombing attack, the worst act of airliner terrorism before 9/11 was followed by at least six other terrorist incidents, plots or threats which were linked to Babbar Khalsa sect in Surrey British Columbia, Hamilton and Montreal. Five Babbar Khalsa members from Montreal were arrested May 30th 1986 in another plot to bomb up Air India flights out of New York City. Newspaper editor Tara Singh Hayer was targeted with a bomb at his office in January 1986. Just weeks later, Sikhs from the Hamilton temple along with Air India bombing suspects Talwinder Singh Parmar and Ajaib Singh Bagri were arrested after being wiretapped discussing blowing up the Parliament and kidnapping children of MPs in India. Visiting Punjabi Cabinet Minister Malkiat Singh Sidhu was ambushed in Canada, surviving being shot in March 1986 by four gunmen.
(9 August 1992) and Talwinder Singh Parmar
(15 October 1992). Parmar's death remained controversial, and today he is accepted to have been shot dead by Indian police during custody; the Tehelka
investigation found that Indian security forces had killed him after interrogation and were ordered to destroy his confession statements, Canada's CBC
network also reported that Parmar had been in police custody for some time prior to his death.
The death of Sukhdev Singh Babbar
, described by India Today
as “the most prominent leader since 1978” who had “an aura of invincibility”, severely weakened Babbar Khalsa.
Despite setbacks incurred in the early Nineties, Babbar Khalsa is still active under ground, although not to the extent it once was. Current leadership resides with Wadhawa Singh Babbar, with Mehal Singh Babbar as deputy Jathedar. Babbar Khalsa is suspected by the Punjab police authorities to be responsible for a bombing at the Shringar Cinema Complex in Ludhiana on October 2007, in which 7 people were killed and 32 wounded.
Sikh
A Sikh is a follower of Sikhism. It primarily originated in the 15th century in the Punjab region of South Asia. The term "Sikh" has its origin in Sanskrit term शिष्य , meaning "disciple, student" or शिक्ष , meaning "instruction"...
armed organisation based in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. Many consider the Babbar Khalsa a Resistance movement
Resistance movement
A resistance movement is a group or collection of individual groups, dedicated to opposing an invader in an occupied country or the government of a sovereign state. It may seek to achieve its objects through either the use of nonviolent resistance or the use of armed force...
, and it played a prominent role in the Punjab insurgency
Punjab insurgency
The insurgency in the Indian state of Punjab originated in the late 1970s. The roots of the insurgency were very complex.-Punjabi Suba Movement:In the 1950s and 1960s, linguistic issues in India caused civil disorder when the central government declared Hindi as the national language of India...
. Babbar Khalsa International was created in 1978, after a number of Sikhs were killed in clashes with the Nirankari
Nirankari
The Sant Nirankari Mission , abbreviated as, SNM, and also known as Universal Brotherhood Mission, is a spiritual organization.The Sant Nirankari Mission is neither a new religion nor a sect of an existing religion, but an all-embracing spiritual movement dedicated to human welfare...
sect. It was active throughout 1980s in the Punjab insurgency
Punjab insurgency
The insurgency in the Indian state of Punjab originated in the late 1970s. The roots of the insurgency were very complex.-Punjabi Suba Movement:In the 1950s and 1960s, linguistic issues in India caused civil disorder when the central government declared Hindi as the national language of India...
but its influence declined in the 1990s after several senior members were killed in encounter killings with police. Babbar Khalsa International has since been declared to be a terrorist
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
organization in many countries, including India, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. On March 13, Jagtar Singh Tara split from the Babbar Khalsa to form the Khalistan Tiger Force for undisclosed reasons.
Creation
The name Babbar Khalsa is taken from the Babbar Akali Movement of 1920, which agitated against British colonial rule in India. The modern-day Babbar Khalsa was created as a result of the bloody clash on April 13, 1978, between a group of Amritdhari Sikhs of Akhand Kirtani JathaAkhand Kirtani Jatha
The Akhand Kirtani Jatha is a jatha of Sikhs....
who went to protest against a gathering of the rival Nirankari
Nirankari
The Sant Nirankari Mission , abbreviated as, SNM, and also known as Universal Brotherhood Mission, is a spiritual organization.The Sant Nirankari Mission is neither a new religion nor a sect of an existing religion, but an all-embracing spiritual movement dedicated to human welfare...
sect. The confrontation led to the killing, and in the eyes of the AKJ, murder of thirteen of demonstrators. When a criminal case was filed against the Nirankari leader, he had his case transferred to neighboring Haryana state, where he was acquitted the following year. This gave rise to new organizational expressions of Sikh aspirations outside the Akali party, and an angry sentiment that if the government and judiciary would not prosecute enemies of Sikhism, taking extrajudical measures could be justified to avenge the death of Sikhs. Among the chief proponents of this attitude were the militant Babbar Khalsa founded by the widow, Bibi Amarjit Kaur of the Akhand Kirtani Jatha
Akhand Kirtani Jatha
The Akhand Kirtani Jatha is a jatha of Sikhs....
, whose husband Fauja Singh had been killed after heading the march in Amritsar. Indo-Canadian Talwinder Singh Parmar
Talwinder Singh Parmar
Talwinder Singh Parmar , born in village Panshta , district Kapurthala, Punjab, India, was a highranking member of the Sikh militant group Babbar Khalsa. He belonged to the Sikh Rajput community....
was put in charge of the Madhya wing of the Babbar Khalsa in 1998, with Jagdev SIngh Mehra remaining the overall chief or "Jathedar". "Wadhawa Singh Babbar" and "Mehal Singh Babbar" were assigned as vice-Jathedars.
Rivals were the Damdami Taksal, the Dal Khalsa, formed with the object of demanding a sovereign Sikh state, and the All India Sikh Students Federation
All India Sikh Students Federation
The Sikh Students Federation, formerly the All India Sikh Students Federation, is a Sikh students' union and political organisation in India...
, which was banned by the government.
When Gurbachan Singh
Gurbachan Singh
Baba Gurbachan Singh was the leader of the Sant Nirankari sect, considered to be heterodox by mainstream Sikh. He was declared Satguru by his predecessor Baba Avtar Singh in 1962.He should not be confused with Gurbachan Singh Manochahal.-Events of 1978-1980:...
, the Nirankari Baba responsible for what rivals considered the death of thirteen Sikh martyrs in Amritsar was shot to death on April 24, 1980, it was a member of the Akhand Kirtani Jatha, Ranjit Singh who surrendered and admitted to the assassination. Unlike other groups in the Punjab insurgency
Punjab insurgency
The insurgency in the Indian state of Punjab originated in the late 1970s. The roots of the insurgency were very complex.-Punjabi Suba Movement:In the 1950s and 1960s, linguistic issues in India caused civil disorder when the central government declared Hindi as the national language of India...
, Babbar Khalsa was more concerned with propagating the ideas of the Akhand Kirtani Jatha
Akhand Kirtani Jatha
The Akhand Kirtani Jatha is a jatha of Sikhs....
than with the actual Khalistan movement
Khalistan movement
Khalistan refers to a global political secessionist movement to create a separate Sikh state, called Khālistān , carved out of parts mostly consisting of the Punjab region of India, depending on definition....
.
Activity
Four Babbar Khalsa International UK members were arrested and later bailed in July 2010 in connection with the murder of a Sikh leader in Punjab, India. Babbar Khalsa kept up a low level of activity until 1983. Its membership was drawn from ex-servicemen, police officers, and Sikh religious organizations. After Operation Bluestar the organization fell into disarray but was able to regroup and remained active.During its highest period of activity Babbar Khalsa International had 27 subgroups operating under its direction. It specialized in the use of bombs, particularly RDX
RDX
RDX, an initialism for Research Department Explosive, is an explosive nitroamine widely used in military and industrial applications. It was developed as an explosive which was more powerful than TNT, and it saw wide use in WWII. RDX is also known as cyclonite, hexogen , and T4...
.
Air India Flight 182
The Commission of Inquiry into the Investigation of the Bombing of Air India Flight 182 concluded that Talwinder Singh Parmar"is now believed that he was the leader of the conspiracy to bomb Air India flightsAir India Flight 182
Air India Flight 182 was an Air India flight operating on the Montreal–London–Delhi route. On 23 June 1985, the airplane operating on the route a Boeing 747-237B named after Emperor Kanishka was blown up by a bomb at an altitude of , and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean while in Irish airspace.A...
" Only Inderjit Singh Reyat who admitted to building the bomb, was convicted in the Air India bombing.
The bombing attack, the worst act of airliner terrorism before 9/11 was followed by at least six other terrorist incidents, plots or threats which were linked to Babbar Khalsa sect in Surrey British Columbia, Hamilton and Montreal. Five Babbar Khalsa members from Montreal were arrested May 30th 1986 in another plot to bomb up Air India flights out of New York City. Newspaper editor Tara Singh Hayer was targeted with a bomb at his office in January 1986. Just weeks later, Sikhs from the Hamilton temple along with Air India bombing suspects Talwinder Singh Parmar and Ajaib Singh Bagri were arrested after being wiretapped discussing blowing up the Parliament and kidnapping children of MPs in India. Visiting Punjabi Cabinet Minister Malkiat Singh Sidhu was ambushed in Canada, surviving being shot in March 1986 by four gunmen.
Decline
The crackdown on Sikh militant organisations by the Indian Government in the early 1990s, followed by the criminal and government infiltration of the Khalistan movement and the various militant organisations respectively, greatly weakened the Babbar Khalsa, ultimately leading to the death of Sukhdev Singh BabbarSukhdev Singh Babbar
Sukhdev Singh Babbar was the leader of Babbar Khalsa International the most heavily armed, most feared and most powerful of dozens of the militant groups in Punjab State that are fighting for an independent state for Sikhs, known as Khalistan...
(9 August 1992) and Talwinder Singh Parmar
Talwinder Singh Parmar
Talwinder Singh Parmar , born in village Panshta , district Kapurthala, Punjab, India, was a highranking member of the Sikh militant group Babbar Khalsa. He belonged to the Sikh Rajput community....
(15 October 1992). Parmar's death remained controversial, and today he is accepted to have been shot dead by Indian police during custody; the Tehelka
Tehelka
Tehelka is an Indian weekly political magazine under the editorship of Tarun Tejpal known for its undercover exposé style of journalism. Its cover price is Rs 20 per issue. The publication began in 2000 as a news website, Tehelka.com...
investigation found that Indian security forces had killed him after interrogation and were ordered to destroy his confession statements, Canada's CBC
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
network also reported that Parmar had been in police custody for some time prior to his death.
The death of Sukhdev Singh Babbar
Sukhdev Singh Babbar
Sukhdev Singh Babbar was the leader of Babbar Khalsa International the most heavily armed, most feared and most powerful of dozens of the militant groups in Punjab State that are fighting for an independent state for Sikhs, known as Khalistan...
, described by India Today
India Today
India Today is an Indian weekly news magazine published by Living Media India Limited, in publication since 1975 based in Mumbai. India Today is also the name of its sister-publication in Hindi...
as “the most prominent leader since 1978” who had “an aura of invincibility”, severely weakened Babbar Khalsa.
Despite setbacks incurred in the early Nineties, Babbar Khalsa is still active under ground, although not to the extent it once was. Current leadership resides with Wadhawa Singh Babbar, with Mehal Singh Babbar as deputy Jathedar. Babbar Khalsa is suspected by the Punjab police authorities to be responsible for a bombing at the Shringar Cinema Complex in Ludhiana on October 2007, in which 7 people were killed and 32 wounded.
See also
- Sikh extremismSikh extremismSikh extremism refers to threats or acts of violence against civilians, or material support for the acts of violence.Some extremists have been separatists pursuing the formation of a Sikh state, often referred to as Khalistan....
- Sukhdev Singh BabbarSukhdev Singh BabbarSukhdev Singh Babbar was the leader of Babbar Khalsa International the most heavily armed, most feared and most powerful of dozens of the militant groups in Punjab State that are fighting for an independent state for Sikhs, known as Khalistan...
- Jagtar Singh HawaraJagtar Singh HawaraJagtar Singh Hawara, is a member of Babbar Khalsa. Babbar Khalsa is enlisted as terrorist organization in various countries. Jagtar Singh Hawara is also considered a freedom fighter among the supporters of the Khalistan movement. He is a Jat of Bhangoo clan and belongs to Hawara village in...
- Talwinder Singh ParmarTalwinder Singh ParmarTalwinder Singh Parmar , born in village Panshta , district Kapurthala, Punjab, India, was a highranking member of the Sikh militant group Babbar Khalsa. He belonged to the Sikh Rajput community....
- Malagar Singh Babbar
- Dilawar Singh BabbarDilawar Singh BabbarDilawar Singh Babbar was a serving police officer in the Punjab Police of India at the time of his becoming a human bomb. He joined Babbar Khalsa International, during his service in the Punjab Police and volunteered to become a suicide bomber to assassinate Beant Singh, the Chief Minister of...