National Council of Khalistan

The National Council of Khalistan was the body through which Dr Jagjit Singh Chohan, then living abroad, pressed the demand for an independent Sikh state of Khalistan from 1980. Khushwant Singh writes that on 12 April 1980 Chohan announced his election as president of the Council, with Balbir Singh Sandhu as its secretary general. Wikipedia's article on Chohan says that he declared the formation of the Council at Anandpur Sahib, naming himself president. The Home Ministry's note of 1981, printed in Gurmit Singh's History of Sikh Struggles, describes Chohan as "a former Akali minister now based abroad" who styled himself president of the Council, and says he had demanded a separate Sikh state for the last few years and "announced the establishment of the provisional government of Khalistan in Canada". It names Sandhu, a resident of Amritsar, as secretary general. These are the Home Ministry's words.

Key moments

• 12 April 1980: the date Khushwant Singh gives for the announcement. Wikipedia says Sandhu made a parallel announcement in Amritsar, releasing Khalistan stamps and currency.
• 14 April 1981: the Home Ministry's note says the Centre set up a National Security Board in Punjab that day, and that Chohan's passport was impounded and the visa of Ganga Singh Dhillon, a US-based travel agent, cancelled. The note quotes the magazine Sunday placing Chohan and Sandhu at the "radical extreme" of four Sikh positions on Khalistan.
• September 1981: within 48 hours of the killing of Lala Jagat Narain, Gurmit Singh writes, Sandhu released Khalistan dollars and handed out copies of Khalistan passports at Sri Akal Takht Sahib.
• 29 September 1981: after five Dal Khalsa members hijacked an Indian Airlines plane to Lahore, Gurmit Singh says Sandhu commended the Dal Khalsa for its bold initiative in the fight for Khalistan and called the hijacking an indication of the suppression and despair felt by the Sikh community.
• 1 or 3 May 1982: the Central Government declared the Council an unlawful association under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, by notification S.O. 296(E). The notification says the Council had been encouraging the "secessionist and violent activities" of the Dal Khalsa and had issued five-dollar notes, postage stamps and passports of the "so-called Government of Khalistan". Gurmit Singh's appendix dates it 3 May 1982, while a chapter of the same volume gives 1 May.

Gurmit Singh writes that "Khalistan Consulates" were later set up in England, Germany, Canada and the United States, handing out passports, currency and stamps that he calls merely symbolic of the movement. Khushwant Singh writes that Chohan named cabinet ministers and appointed ambassadors, that until 1988 only Ecuador agreed to open an embassy, and that his supporters in Canada issued Khalistani passports, currency and stamps that have become collectors' items.

Where it stands: The sources found say nothing of the Council after the ban of 1982.