Hawara Committee

The Hawara Committee, reported by The Tribune as the Jathedar Jagtar Singh Hawara Committee, is a five-member committee that the paper says was constituted by Sarbat Khalsa. It campaigns for the release of Sikh prisoners and carries the name of Jagtar Singh Hawara. The Tribune reported on 10 November 2015 that the Sarbat Khalsa at Chabba named Hawara, a convict in the case of the assassination of the former Chief Minister Beant Singh who was serving life imprisonment at Burail Jail, officiating Jathedar of Sri Akal Takht Sahib, with former MP Dhian Singh Mand to officiate in his absence. The sources found do not say which Sarbat Khalsa formed the committee.

What it has done

• 17 March 2019: the committee staged a three-hour sit-in outside the Nabha Maximum Security Jail in Patiala. Its members said they had earlier protested over the same demand outside the Amritsar jail and Burail Jail in Chandigarh, and that the protest was part of a continuing series.
• Its demand: the committee said 18 Sikh prisoners in Punjab jails should be released, and that three more outside Punjab had finished their sentences but not been freed. Members argued that life convicts are generally released on good behaviour after 10, 12 or 14 years, while Sikh prisoners were not released after 24, 27 or 30 years. One member, Baljinder Singh, said the protest was against the discriminatory behaviour of the judicial system and the governments.

A related body: ThePrint reported on 23 January 2023 that Hawara's father set up a Jagtar Singh Hawara Release Committee, now among the flag-bearers of the Qaumi Insaaf Morcha, a permanent sit-in on the Chandigarh and Mohali border started by Sikh bodies to demand the release of the Bandi Singhs, Sikh prisoners arrested for crimes in the years of armed conflict who have served the mandatory jail period. ThePrint does not say whether this is the same body as the Hawara Committee.

Where it stands: The sources found do not report any action by the committee after March 2019.