This comprehensive series revisits the Punjab insurgency and the rise of Khalistani terrorism through the people, institutions and events that shaped the conflict. It documents massacres of Hindus, targeted killings of journalists, attacks on police personnel and attempts to control narratives. The series also trace the transformation of Punjab Police under Julio Ribeiro and KPS Gill, while examining the counterterrorism campaign, its successes, controversies, excesses and the competing memories that still surround the period.
Local memorials, police webpages, press-freedom records and family recollections preserve fragments of those killed, while incomplete archives, political commemorations and cultural narratives continue shaping which victims remain visible and which gradually disappear from public memory.
Methods adopted by Ribeiro and Gill restored state control and weakened Khalistani groups through intelligence, mobility and coordination that ended insurgency.
Senior commanders received headlines, but constables, drivers, ASIs and Special Police Officers often survived only in FIRs and memorial pages, even as repeated assassinations, ambushes and family killings hardened the force’s response irreversibly throughout Punjab.
SGPC, SAD, AAP, BJP, Congress and Panthic groups have adopted competing positions, using remission demands, Sikh sentiment, security concerns and protest politics to strengthen their influence across Punjab’s increasingly fragmented political landscape ahead of elections.
The killings crossed religious lines, as Sikh and Hindu journalists alike were targeted for opposing Khalistan, defending communal harmony or refusing to surrender editorial judgement and broadcasting language to armed terrorist organisations during the insurgency.
It was the night of 6th July 1987. A Haryana Roadways bus had left Chandigarh and was moving towards Rishikesh. The passengers were mainly pilgrims, labourers,
Bus and train massacres, assassinated editors, murdered Sikh opponents and targeted police officers reveal a history increasingly reduced to statistics while militants receive political context and sympathetic retellings.
Selected issues, clear explanations and thoughtful perspectives—delivered when we publish.
