SUMMARY
The term ’Sikh insurgents’ is used to denote the interlinked militant Sikh groups that have fought the government of India in order to change the territorial status of the state of Punjab. Since it has not been possible to disaggregate violence related to the Sikh insurgency into acts of violence carried out by individual groups the UCDP views all of the active groups as having been one single actor.
The term ‘Sikh insurgents’ incorporates or has incorporated perhaps as many as 30 different militias, who all share the common trait that they are opposed to the present form of Indian rule over the state of Punjab and the Sikh religious community. Several militant groups have come and gone since the violent struggle was initiated in 1983, but most have now disappeared. The armed conflict over Punjab/Khalistan has not been active since 1993 (as of 2008).
The Sikhs are a religious minority in India (with a considerable diaspora in the Anglo-Saxon West), differentiated from the majority Hindus through their Sikh religion and Punjab language. Although a minority in India as a whole, the group makes up the majority of the population of the state of Punjab. Due to a variety of factors many Sikhs began to seek secession from India and the creation of the separate state of Khalistan (Land of the Pure) in the 1970s, sparking violent armed conflict with the government of India in the early 1980s. In fighting this conflict the Sikh insurgents also made use of one-sided violence. For more information on the causes of the armed conflict, see the India (Punjab/Khalistan) conflict description.
Prominent outfits that have been active in the Sikh insurgency against the government of India and in one-sided violence include the BKI (Babbar Khalsa International), the AISSF (All India Sikh Students’ Federation, also a political party), the KLO (Khalistan Liberation Organisation), the BTFK (Bhindranwale Tiger Force of Khalistan) and the KCF (Khalistan Commando Force). In general these armed groups all traced their roots to the Sikh religious leader Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, a leader who was instrumental in militarizing Sikh nationalism in the early 1980s. Theoretically the armed outfits answered to various religious Panthic Committees, but the exact amount of control these bodies had was probably low. Subsequently, splits within these groups, and within alliances formed between them, were common all through the conflict, with allegiances and names changing almost constantly. The outfits also battled each other at times, attempting to secure turf and control over lucrative criminal enterprises.
Recruits for the outfits were found locally, or among Sikhs in adjoining states, but severe pressure placed on the insurgents by the government forced many groups to establish bases and camps across the border, in Pakistan. Pakistan has also been accused of supporting the insurgents with weapons and other supplies, and although this is very plausible seeing to the antagonisms that existed between India and Pakistan at the time, these allegations have not been independently substantiated to any higher degree. The Sikh diaspora in the West has also been an important supplier of financial and political support.
By the end of 1992 most of the Sikh insurgent groups had been discredited in the eyes of the Sikh public. The terror inflicted on the civilian population, and the increasing criminalisation of the militant outfits, made recruitment exceedingly difficult. This, combined with effective counterinsurgency measures by the government, ended large-scale Sikh insurgent activities in 1993. Some of the outfits survived despite these conditions, but remained only as minor militant movements.
The Sikh insurgents have been involved in the intrastate and one-sided categories of UCDP organised violence.
