Paramjit Kaur Khalra (Jaswant Singh Khalra’s

Some Lesser Known Facts About Paramjit Kaur Khalra

• Paramjit Kaur Khalra is an Indian politician and human rights defender affiliated with the Khalra Mission Organization, which is known for advocating for the victims of the Massacre of Sikhs during the Insurgency in Punjab. She is the widow of prominent Sikh human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra.

• She was a member of the socialist student union during her college days.

• Paramjit’s younger brother, Gurbhajan Singh, was a student union leader during his college days. Jaswant Singh Khalra, who was a well-known firebrand, had a close friend in common with Gurbhajan. Gurbhajan was referred to as “Lamboo” due to his tall stature. Friends and family would also call him “Bhej” fondly. Despite being eight years younger than Jaswant, Gurbhajan instantly connected with him and became his close friend. He would often speak warmly about Jaswant and his activism at home. One day, Gurbhajan suggested that Paramjit and Jaswant would make a wonderful couple. However, Paramjit, who was still pursuing her education at the time, declined the idea of marriage, expressing her desire to further her studies. On 5 July 1981, Gurbhajan Singh died after falling from his tractor while working in the family’s fields. With his passing, the family decided to fulfil his final wish and arranged for Paramjit to marry Jaswant in 1981.

• The couple stayed in Jaswant’s native village Khalra from 1981 to 1985. After marriage, Paramjit started working as a teacher in a nearby village called Puhla, Tarn Taran, meanwhile, Jaswant continued to work as Panchayat Secretary in the village.

• In 1985, they moved to Amritsar, which was 40 km away from Khalra. In the same year, the couple was blessed with a daughter, Navkiran. In Amritsar, Paramjit secured a job as a librarian at Bhai Gurdas Library at Guru Nanak University, and Jaswant became the director of a bank.

  

• Operation Blue Star, the assassination of Indira Gandhi, and the 1984 anti-Sikh riots led to Insurgency in Punjab from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. During this time, a series of organised pogroms against Sikhs were organised by the government during which the police were empowered to detain anyone whom they suspected of militancy. The state of turmoil in Punjab led Jaswant to become a human rights activist. He investigated four major cases, the custodial killing of militant Paramjit Singh Panjwar’s mother, the Behla human shield case concerning the death of seven civilians, the cremation of 25,000 unidentified bodies in Punjab, and the killing of about 2,000 policemen who did not collaborate in the terror operations of Punjab Police. He garnered global attention for his research concerning illegal killings and cremations following which he was abducted and killed by the Punjab Police in 1995.

• In 1995, Khalra Action Committee was formed to continue the pursuit of cases of unidentified bodies. In 1998, its name was changed to Khalra Mission Committee, and in 2005, it came to be known as the Khalra Mission Organisation. Paramjit Kaur and her children, Navkiran and Janmeet, joined hands to keep Jaswant Singh’s legacy alive by advocating for human rights through the Khalra Mission Organization.

• In 1999, Paramjit resigned from her position as a librarian at GNDU to participate in the Lok Sabha elections from Tarn Taran. She contested on the ticket of Sarb Hind Shiromani Akali Dal (SHSAD), a faction of the Shiromani Akali Dal led by Gurcharan Singh Tohra, but she lost the election.

• It took a decade to bring the case of Khalra’s murder to trial. In 2005, six Punjab police officials, namely DSP Jaspal Singh, ASI Amarjit Singh, SHO Satnam Singh, SHO Surinderpal Singh, SHO Jasbir Singh, and Head Constable Prithipal Singh, were found guilty of kidnapping and murdering Khalra. Jaspal Singh and Amarjit Singh received life imprisonment, while the other four were sentenced to seven years in prison. Apart from these convicted individuals, the charge sheet included Tarn Taran SSP Ajit Singh Sandhu, DSP Ashok Kumar, and Head Constable Rashpal Singh. Sandhu was found dead near Bakarpur village in 1997, and his death was deemed as suicide.  Ashok Kumar passed away due to illness, and Rashpal Singh was eventually acquitted. In 2007, the Punjab & Haryana High Court increased the sentences of Satnam Singh, Surinderpal Singh, Jasbir Singh, and Prithipal Singh to life imprisonment. In November 2011, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal challenging the life imprisonment of these four accused, affirming their convictions and sentences. DGP KPS Gill’s involvement in the case surfaced in 2005 based on Kuldeep Singh’s testimony. On 6 September 2006, Paramjit filed a petition urging the High Court to investigate and prosecute KPS Gill for his role in Khalra’s torture and murder. However, KPS Gill passed away in 2017 without facing trial.

• In an interview, Paramjit said that she believed that Sandhu was murdered by KPS Gill and that his death was staged as a suicide. She talked about the same in an interview and said,
  

  Killing Ajit Singh Sandhu had two advantages for KPS Gill and the Indian government. Ajit Singh Sandhu was depressed as his had many cases against him and he had started to threaten KPS Gill, that “If I am not acquitted from the cases then I will tell the court who gave me the orders to kill innocent Sikhs and also to whose order I had killed Jaswant Singh Khalra.”

• She also said,
  

  Anyway some people also tell me, that Ajit Singh Sandhu is still alive and fooling the government and after killing someone, he had thrown the dead body under the train. One man even told me, that he had seen Ajit Singh Sandhu in Germany. I don’t belive in that, but the police can’t be trusted, they can do anything.”

• In 2019, she ran for the Khadoor Sahib Lok Sabha constituency as a candidate of the Punjab Ekta Party but was unsuccessful in securing the seat. The winning candidate, Jasbir Singh Dimpa of the Congress party, received 459,710 votes, whereas Paramjit Khalra obtained 214,489 votes.

  

• Notably, during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the SAD (Taksali) made a significant announcement. They decided to withdraw their candidate, former Army Chief General JJ Singh, from the Khadoor Sahib constituency in order to endorse and support Paramjit Kaur’s candidacy. This strategic move aimed to prevent the splitting of votes between Paramjit and JJ Singh, ensuring the defeat of both the Akali Dal and the Congress party.

• In 2022, it was announced that Punjabi singer and actor Diljit Dosanjh would be portraying the role of Jaswant Singh Khalra in his biopic. Diljit while shooting in Amristar for the biopic faced a lot of criticism and protest on the sets saying that “he was not pious according to them.” They also called him “Videshi” and said that he was too “westernised” to play the role. Thereafter, Paramjit made an announcement on her social media platforms, stating that the Khalra Family had officially granted permission to director Honey Trehan for the production of the biopic. Diljit Dosanjh later shared a screenshot of Paramjit Kaur’s post on his Instagram account.