Harbans Lal Khanna

Harbans Lal Khanna was a BJP MLA and president of its Amritsar district branch in Punjab, India. He is remembered as one of the Hindu politicians killed in targeted attacks during early stages of Punjab militancy.[1]

Biography

His killing comes with a backdrop when Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale[2] and his followers started killing Hindus first in urban areas and then through targeted mobile killing squads in rural areas to generate a Hindu-exodus from punjab.[3] Bhindranwale was known to lead anti-smoking drives.[4] So, Khanna started doing the opposite by leading pro-tobacco marches. One of the marches claimed "...bidi piyenge hum Shaan se jiyenge.”( We'll smoke cigarettes and bidis to live in pride)[5]

While leading a procession against the Sikh effort to have holy city status granted to Amritsar,[6] he had released slogans there on 30 May 1981, "Dukki tikki khehan nahin deni, sir te pagri rehan nahin deni; kachh, kara, kirpaan; ehnoon bhejo Pakistan." ("We are not going to let any second or third group exist, we are not going to let a turban remain on any head; the shorts, the iron bangle, the sword, send these to Pakistan").[7][6][8]

On 14 February 1984, mobs led by Khanna gathered at as many as 56 places in Amritsar to engage in anti-Sikh desecrations. At the Amritsar railway station, a model of the Golden Temple was destroyed. A picture of the fourth Sikh guru, which had been on display for several years, was defaced beyond recognition, with feces and lit cigarettes rubbed into it.[7] Carrying some of the pieces of the replica away, some Sikhs swore revenge.[7]

He was shot by Sikh militants in retaliation[7] on April 2, 1984.[9] The responsibility for this terror attack was quickly claimed by a Sikh militant organization known as the 'Dashmesh Regiment.' After the murder, there were clashes between Sikhs and Hindus resulting in a Hindu temple being burned to the ground. [10] Surinder Singh Sodhi, Jarnail Singh’s right hand man, has been accused of being the killer and so has Labh Singh.[11][12]

References
  1. "हरबंस लाल खन्ना का बलिदान सबके लिए प्रेरणा: अश्वनी शर्मा". Dainik Jagran (in Hindi). Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  2. Herausgeber., Hoiberg, Dale, Verfasser. Ramchandani, Indu. Bhindrawale, Jarnail Singh. OCLC 1127230487. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. Jaffrelot, Christophe (1999). The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics: 1925 to the 1990s : Strategies of Identity-building, Implantation and Mobilisation (with Special Reference to Central India). Penguin Books India. ISBN 978-0-14-024602-5.
  4. Chima, Jugdep S. (11 March 2010). The Sikh Separatist Insurgency in India: Political Leadership and Ethnonationalist Movements. SAGE Publishing India. ISBN 978-93-5150-953-0.
  5. Kaur, Harminder (1990). Blue Star Over Amritsar. Ajanta Publications (India). ISBN 978-81-202-0257-3.
  6. Karim, Afsir (1991). Counter Terrorism, the Pakistan Factor. Lancer Publishers. p. 30. ISBN 978-8170621270.
  7. Dhillon, Gurdarshan Singh (1996). Truth about Punjab: SGPC White Paper (1st ed.). Amritsar, Punjab: Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. pp. 186, 205–206. ISBN 978-0836456547. Retrieved 25 March 2020.
  8. Judge, Paramjit S. (2005). Religion, Identity, and Nationhood: The Sikh Militant Movement. Rawat Publications. p. 134. ISBN 9788170339496.
  9. Sikh Gunmen Kill Hindu In Punjab - Nytimes.Com
  10. "Hindu leader slain in northern India - UPI Archives". UPI. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  11. Juergensmeyer, Mark; Juergensmeyer, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Global and International Studies Program Mark (2003). Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence. University of California Press. p. 276. ISBN 978-0-520-24011-7.
  12. Baja, Mander Singh. Sher Dil - Shaheed Bhai Surinder Singh Sodhi (in Punjabi). pp. 71–74.
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