Declaration of Khalistan, Sri Akal Takht Sahib

Who: The five-member Panthic Committee, named by the Sarbat Khalsa held at Sri Akal Takht Sahib on 26 January 1986. The Indic Journal says it was led by Aroor Singh and included Wassan Singh Zaffarwal and Gurbachan Singh Manochahal. The same gathering named Jasbir Singh Rode Jathedar while he was in jail, with Gurdev Singh Kaunke as acting Jathedar. Facing them was the Akali ministry of Surjit Singh Barnala.

What: The January Sarbat Khalsa was, as The Caravan puts it, convened for the first time in over two centuries, after Operation Blue Star. It rejected the Akal Takht rebuilt by the Government of India and resolved to struggle for Sikh self-rule. On 29 April 1986 the Panthic Committee proclaimed Khalistan at a press conference in the Golden Temple complex. Sarbjit Singh, later Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar, writes in The Tribune that reporters were handed sealed envelopes to open after about an hour, which he took as a way of giving the committee time to leave.

The text, as carried by the 1984 Tribute website, says the Khalsa Panth will have its own home, Khalistan. It asks the United Nations, the world's governments and India to recognise Khalistan, and asks India to withdraw its army. It tells Sikh government employees and soldiers to keep doing their duty until further orders, makes Sikhism the official creed, and offers citizenship to Sikhs abroad. It says the committee has no wish to shed undue blood, and names the Khalistan Commando Force, under General Hari Singh, as the basis of a future defence force.

Where: Sri Akal Takht Sahib and the Sri Harmandir Sahib complex, Amritsar.

Why it mattered: It was a proclamation of Khalistan by a body that claimed the authority of a Sarbat Khalsa. The state answered the next day. On 30 April police were sent into the complex to search for the committee. Sarbjit Singh writes that Arun Nehru, then Minister of State for Home, rushed to Amritsar and insisted on it, though the administration was sure no one remained, and that Captain Amarinder Singh, second in the Barnala government, resigned in protest. A fact-finding summary by the International Human Rights Organisation says about 378 people were rounded up and 233 arrested, among them Kaunke, and that 27 Akali Dal (L) MLAs resigned, leaving Barnala in a minority. The Indic Journal says President's rule followed within a year.

Dal Khalsa and other groups still mark the declaration. On its 40th anniversary in 2026, Dal Khalsa, the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) and others held ardaas at the Akal Takht and released a policy document, saying they did not support disorder.