All India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF)

The All India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF) grew into one of the main organisations of the Panth's youth. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says the Sikh Students Federation was formed in 1944 at Lahore, with Sarup Singh, then a senior law student, as president, and moved to Amritsar after 1947. (Some sources give 1943.) It set out to give Sikh youth "a living consciousness of their religious inheritance." Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board describes it as the youth group of the Akali Dal.

Its part in this history

Bhai Amrik Singh was president until his death. Arrested in July 1982 during that year's agitation, he stayed president while interned and died during Operation Blue Star in June 1984. The Government of India banned the AISSF in March 1984 and jailed many of its members. In April 1986 the federation split in two: one faction, led by Manjit Singh, kept links with the United Akali Dal, and the other, led by Gurjit Singh, allied itself with the Damdami Taksal.

Later leaders

• Manjit Singh, Amrik Singh's younger brother, who succeeded him and was freed in July 1989 after five years in Sangrur jail.
• Karnail Singh Peermohammad, president from 1995 and later patron.
• Parminder Singh Dhingra, president by 2023.

Key moments

• 2 July 1978: Amrik Singh elected president.
• March 1984: banned. Lifted 11 April 1985.
• 1 November 2013: Dr Karj Singh Dharamsinghwala, for the AISSF, joined the delegation filing the "1984: Yes, it's genocide" petition at the UN in Geneva, with Sikhs for Justice and others.
• 2022: the AISSF followed a unity committee set up by Sukhbir Badal in dissolving its structure. On its 78th foundation day at Sri Akal Takht Sahib in September it began an initiative to reunite its splinter groups.
• 27 May 2025: Parminder Singh Dhingra, a Jalandhar lawyer and the AISSF president, died after a shooting at a neighbour's house. The Tribune says a bullet, allegedly fired by the neighbour's son, hit his leg, and that he also had a serious head injury, reportedly from falling down the stairs. Police said first medical findings pointed to the head injury, possibly from the fall, not the gunshot alone. They arrested three of the neighbour's family and called the motive unclear. Relatives said prompt care could have saved him; police rejected this.

Where it stands today

The AISSF still marks its foundation day each September. At the 79th, in Jalandhar in 2023, it passed resolutions on Punjab's government jobs, the Bhakra Beas Management Board's management and the release of Sikh prisoners.