Khalistan Movement

The Proposed Flag of Khalistan is often used as a symbol of the Khalistan Independence Movement.

The Khalistan Movement is a Sikh secessionist movement. Its goal is to create a homeland for Sikhs or anyone else regardless of their religion, creating a safe place by seceding the Indian Punjab from India and establish a sovereign, ethno-religious Sikh state called Khālistān ("Land of the Khalsa"), in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent. The geographical area of Khalistan is variable and several propositions have been made by different groups, but all plans which have been primarily considered involve land that currently forms Punjab, Chandigarh and some parts of the neighbouring states of India.

Khalistani separatists declared their unilateral independence from India on 29 April 1986. In 1993, Khalistan was briefly admitted in the UNPO. In the 1980s and 1990s, the movement reached on its peak, after that the insurgency petered out, and the movement failed to reach its objective for multiple reasons including a heavy police crackdown on separatists, factional infighting, and disillusionment from the Sikh population.

Khalistan Movement Media

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  British Punjab Province, in 1909

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  A map of the present-day Indian state of Punjab. Following the partition, East Punjab became PEPSU, which was further divided in 1966 with the formation of the new states of Haryana and Himachal Pradesh as well as the current state of Punjab. Punjab is the only state in India with a majority Sikh population.

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  Location of Nankana Sahib in Punjab, Pakistan, that was proposed as the capital of Khalistan by ZA Bhutto.

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  Indira Gandhi

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  Irish Naval Service recovering bodies from the Air India Flight 182 bombing

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  The aircraft involved, VT-EFO, seen on 10 June 1985, less than two weeks before the bombing of Air India Flight 182