Jaswant Sikh Khalra Memorial Lecture 2020 and book launch
Jaswant Sikh Khalra Memorial Lecture 2020 and book launch

ZOOM invite :

Host and organisers: The APPG for British Sikhs, UNITED SIKHS , British Organisation for Sikh Students (BOSS) and Sikh PA are pleased to invite you to attend the Jaswant Sikh Khalra Memorial Lecture via zoom.

You may watch a trailer on the event at link below:

Topic: Jaswant Singh Khalra Memorial Lecture 2020: Dispelling the Darkness of Injustice

Time: Nov 3, 2020 06:30 PM London

2020 Marks 25 years since the revolutionary Jaswant Singh Khalra was abducted and disappeared by the Punjab police. In his memory, UK Sikhs are organizing an event to commemorate Khalra’s human rights work, fierce spirit and resistance against the state oppression.

The event will comprise an address by the UN Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Religion or Belief, a Memorial Lecture on the continuing work of Khalra and the UK launch of the highly anticipated book on Khalra’s life “The Valiant”.

Join Zoom Meeting

https://zoom.us/j/99285129507?pwd=RkFxdkp4MXl6LzdzYzI1L3FjbUVrQT09

Meeting ID: 992 8512 9507

Passcode: JSKhalra

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Jaswant Singh Khalra was remembered at the Human Rights Council
Jaswant Singh Khalra was remembered at the Human Rights Council
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On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the death of Jaswant Singh Kharla CAP Freedom of Conscience, United Sikhs, Khalra Mission Organization and the author of the book The Valiant – Jaswant Singh Khalra  Gurmeet Kaur made a statement to the UN during the 45th session of the Human Rights Council.

According to the president of CAP LC,

“it is time for the truth to be revealed and for the families of the victims to know the truth about the fate of their loved one” and continued saying that “it is the duty of the Indian authorities to shed light on this crime against humanity”. (Their full statement can be seen here)

Jaswant Singh Kharla’s crime is to have uncovered, according to his book

“thousands of state-enforced disappearances, illegal detentions, custodial killings, and mass cremations of the Sikhs under government’s orders, which constitute the Sikh genocide”.

After its discovery Jaswant Singh Kharla  took as his mission to stop the “government’s tyranny” by exposing and “holding it accountable through legal means”. 

On January 16, 1995, he made public evidence of 3,100 illegal cremations of disappeared persons in just three crematoria from one out of the then thirteen districts in Punjab. He estimated there were a total of 25,000 cremations of disappeared persons throughout the state.

On September 6, 1995, Jaswant Singh Khalra  himself was abducted in broad daylight, tortured in illegal custody for 52 days before being shot dead; his body dismembered and dumped into the very canal that was used to dispose other bodies that he had set out to find.

Author Gurmeet Kaur who wrote The Valiant – Jaswant Singh Khalra said:

“Twenty-five years later, we hope the government will not obstruct efforts to document the gravity of the state-sponsored genocide before nature takes its course and the aging witnesses and parents of the disappeared die”.