Organisation

Panthic Committee

Organisation

Five-member body named by the Sarbat Khalsa of 26 January 1986 to lead the Panth. It issued the Declaration of Khalistan on 29 April 1986; later rival committees used the same name.

The Panthic Committee began as a body of five chief sevaks named by the Gurmata of the Sarbat Khalsa held at Sri Akal Takht Sahib on 26 January 1986, on a call from the Damdami Taksal. The Gurmata created it to lead the struggle after Operation Blue Star.

The first committee: Bhai Dhanna Singh, Gurbachan Singh Manochahal, Gurdev Singh, Aroor Singh and Wassan Singh Zaffarwal. 1984 Tribute and Panthic.org read the third name as Gurdev Singh Usmanwala. Panthic.org says all five were linked to the Damdami Taksal.

Key moments

26 January 1986: the Sarbat Khalsa disbands the SGPC and orders new assemblies at Vaisakhi and Diwali.
29 April 1986: the Committee proclaims Khalistan at a press conference in the Sri Darbar Sahib complex. The text says it speaks through the five-member Committee nominated by the Sarbat Khalsa on 26 January 1986, says the Sikh sangat ratified the idea "with great joy and thrill" at the Sarbat Khalsa of 13 April 1986, and names the Khalistan Commando Force under General Hari Singh as the base of a future defence force.
30 April 1986: Bhai Gurdev Singh is arrested and Manochahal is made acting Jathedar of the Akal Takht, according to Panthic.org.

Later committees: the Punjabi University sociologist Birinder Pal Singh writes that the Kharku groups were later gathered under four apex Panthic Committees.

One built around the Khalistan Commando Force under Wassan Singh Zaffarwal.
One headed by Dr Sohan Singh, a former Punjab government Director of Health Services. In the late 1980s, he writes, it was the most powerful. Its constituents were the KCF (Paramjit Singh Panjwar), the Bhindranwale Tiger Force of Khalistan (Sangha), the Khalistan Liberation Force (Gurjant Singh Budhsinghwala), the Babbar Khalsa (Sukhdev Singh Babbar) and the Sikh Students Federation (Daljit Singh Bittu). It was popularly called the Panj Membari (Five Member) Panthic Committee.
One headed by Manochahal, with his Tiger Force, the KCF under Gurjant Singh Rajasthani and the All India Sikh Students Federation under Manjit Singh.
One under Gurdev Singh Usmanwala, which he calls of little significance.

Where it stands: Dal Khalsa describes the Declaration as the work of a five-member committee elected by the Sarbat Khalsa. In 2026 Dal Khalsa, the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar), the Panch Pardhani Jatha and the Hawara committee marked its 40th anniversary at the Akal Takht and resolved to observe 29 April each year as a Panthic day.

Counsel: Bhai Ajmer Singh

Bhai Ajmer Singh recalls a meeting with a Panthic Committee man at the time of the firauti, when extortion demands were being made from the rooms along the parikarma. He told the man that a great deal had gone wrong. The man agreed: we ourselves are troubled and worried, he said, write something for us so we can take it down to the men. Ajmer Singh wrote it. Two or three months later he asked what had come of it. The man laughed and said that when he read it out to the eight or ten men, they replied: leave it, if we become this good, nobody will even give us roti. Ajmer Singh's comment is that this is the truth, so what is a man to do.

ਖਾੜਕੂ ਤੇ ਨਕਸਲੀ ਲਹਿਰ ਦੀਆਂ ਵੱਡੀਆਂ ਘਟਨਾਵਾਂ 'ਤੇ Ajmer Singh ਦਾ ਅਹਿਮ Interview (Ajmer Singh on the great events of the Kharku and Naxalite movements, on his political autobiography ਖਾੜਕੂ ਲਹਿਰਾਂ ਦੇ ਅੰਗ ਸੰਗ), Pro Punjab TV

† Panthik Faisley analysis

† Two bodies share a name, and some writers have joined them. Birinder Pal Singh defines the 'Five Member Panthic Committee' as Dr Sohan Singh's body, which he places in the late 1980s. His reference list also gives the Declaration of Khalistan as 'Khalistan Ailaan Di Dastavez', credited to the 'Panthic Committee (Panj Membari) / Five Member Panthic Committee', in Sant Sipahi, June 1986. June 1986 is the date he gives for the printing he cites. He does not call it a second text, and the Declaration itself is headed 29 April 1986 (1984 Tribute). The Declaration names its author as the committee nominated by the Sarbat Khalsa on 26 January 1986. Connects the Declaration's own wording with the dating in his note 1 and reference list: the Declaration came from the 1986 Committee, not from Sohan Singh's later body. The reading is ours.

See its connections

Sources

Sarbat Khalsa 1986: A Copy of the Gurmata (Resolutions), Sikh Siyasat News. sikhsiyasatnews.net
1986 January, Sarbat Khalsa, 1984 Tribute. 1984tribute.com
Baba Gurbachan Singh Manochahal, Part 2: The Struggle Begins, Panthic.org. panthic.org
Declaration of Independence of Khalistan (headed 29th April 1986), 1984 Tribute. 1984tribute.com
Rise of the Sikh Militancy: An appraisal of the economic factor (CPSA conference paper, 2004), note 1, Birinder Pal Singh, Canadian Political Science Association. cpsa-acsp.ca
Sikh hardline groups plan events in India, abroad to mark 40th anniversary of Khalistan Declaration (27 Apr 2026), The Tribune. tribuneindia.com
Remembering the 1986 Sarbat Khalsa and Revitalizing Panthic Leadership (1 Feb 2026), Sikh Siyasat News. sikhsiyasatnews.net

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