Starring Diljit Dosanjh, the movie was taken down from Zee5 even before it could complete two days on the platform. So, who was the activist who inspired the film?

Jaswant Singh Khalra was a Strong Activist

Credit: YouTube/Ensaaf

The movie is based on the disappearance of Sikh activist Jaswant Singh Khalra. He was previously a director of a bank in Amritsar, Punjab. He was behind the exposing of the illegal killings and secret cremations that had been happening in the past.

After Operation Blue Star took place and Indira Gandhi had been assassinated, the events of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots left a mark, with many families reporting that their relatives and loved ones were going missing. They had allegedly been picked up by the Punjab Police after being suspected of having links with the militancy.

Khalra himself had many people near and dear to him who went missing. He wasn't one to sit silent and started investigating by himself. He found himself in the Municipal Corporation records in Amritsar, where he also discovered documents with names, ages and addresses of the many people who had gone missing, been killed and then illegally cremated by the police without informing the families or asking for permission.

He went missing in September 1995. Afterwards, he was never found or confirmed to be dead or alive. In 1996, the CBI found that the police station in Tarn Taran had held him captive. Nine police officials were asked to be prosecuted in the accusation of his alleged kidnapping and murder.

It was only in October 2007 that a division bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court extended the life imprisonment sentences of four of the accused - Satnam Singh, Surinder Pal Singh, Jasbir Singh, and the former Head Constable Prithipal Singh.

The Sikh community sees Khalra as a martyr, calling him Shaheed. His actions were immortalised and he was a hero to all of them. This is why religious communities are so upset by Satluj being taken down from the streaming platform.

Lead Image Credits: RSVP Pictures