In a first, a commemorative programme dedicated to human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra was organised by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), under the patronage of Akal Takht, at Gurdwara Shaheed Baba Gurbaksh Singh in the Golden Temple complex here on Saturday.
Khalra, an Amritsar-based human rights activist, became internationally known for documenting and investigating the extrajudicial killings of thousands of people in Punjab in the 1990s. His body was never recovered. The activist had claimed that Punjab Police had killed 25,000 people across the state in the guise of fighting insurgency. On September 6, 1995, Khalra was abducted by Punjab Police officers outside his home in Amritsar’s Kabir Park. A Patiala court convicted several police officers in the case in 2005, sentencing them to life imprisonment.
He was taken to the Jhabal police station in Tarn Taran, illegally confined, tortured and subsequently murdered in police custody, according to the prosecution.
