Lala Jagat Narain assassinated

Who: Victim: Lala Jagat Narain: Hindu newspaper magnate, founder-editor of the Hind Samachar group (Punjab Kesari, Hind Samachar, Jag Bani). Assassins: men on a motorcycle. India Today (30 September 1981) says people nearby apprehended the driver, Nachhatar Singh, and quotes a senior Jullundur official naming two absconding suspects, Dalbir Singh and Swaran Singh, a relative of Bhindranwale. Wikipedia names them Nachhatar Singh Rode, Dalbir Singh and Swaran Singh Rode, all accused. No source we opened reports a trial or its outcome. Asia Watch says Bhindranwale's followers were suspected.

What: Jagat Narain was shot and killed near Ludhiana on September 9, 1981. India Today says that in 1981 he called the Khalistan movement anti-national and urged the state government to arrest the "traitors". Asia Watch names him among the Hindu Punjabi leaders whose census campaign for Hindus to record Hindi, not Punjabi, as their language embittered Punjabi Sikhs. India Today reports that, four kilometres outside Ludhiana that evening, men on a motorcycle fired at his car, and two jumped off and fired point blank at its occupants. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says he had been highly critical of Bhindranwale, who had also criticised him strongly; Asia Watch says his papers had been highly critical of the preacher.

Where: Near Ludhiana, Punjab, according to PTI and Asia Watch. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism calls him a press baron of Jalandhar.

Why it mattered: The killing led to Bhindranwale's arrest. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says the government suspected his hand in the murder and issued warrants for his arrest; Asia Watch says the Punjab police arrested him on that suspicion. On 14 October 1981 Home Minister Giani Zail Singh told Parliament there was no evidence against him (Encyclopaedia of Sikhism). The Caravan says implicating him "proved to be a mistake, only increasing his popularity in the state", and Asia Watch says his weeks in jail increased his popularity and that by the end of 1981 he was arguably the most powerful leader in Punjab.

The Bhindranwale arrest-and-release sequence:

• Bhindranwale was "to surrender" to authorities at Mehta Chowk on September 20, 1981.
• The Caravan says some in the procession clashed with the police, who opened fire and killed 12 people. The Tribune reports 16 Sikhs killed, and All About Sikhs, citing Dilgeer and Sekhon, gives 12, or 22 according to some sources.
• Bhindranwale was arrested.
• He was released after 25 to 26 days in custody. Asia Watch says he was released 25 days after the surrender and dates the release 14 October 1981; The Caravan says he spent 26 days in custody and was released because nothing could be established against him.