Qaumi Insaaf Morcha

The Qaumi Insaaf Morcha (“National Justice Front”) is a Sikh-led protest movement that has held a continuous sit-in on the Mohali and Chandigarh border since 7 January 2023. Its main demand is the release of the Bandi Singhs, Sikh prisoners who the morcha says have finished their sentences. The Daily Pioneer says the SGPC lists 21 Bandi Singhs and the morcha focuses on nine. It also demands justice for the 2015 sacrilege and police-firing cases at Faridkot, Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan, and a 10-day parole for Jagtar Singh Hawara, who was convicted over the 1995 assassination of Chief Minister Beant Singh.

How it began

The Pioneer traces it to November 2013, when the rights activist Gurbaksh Singh Khalsa began a 44-day hunger strike at Gurdwara Amb Sahib, Mohali, for six Sikh detainees who had completed their sentences. On 7 January 2023 protesters marched from Gurdwara Amb Sahib toward Chandigarh, were stopped at the border the same day, and began a permanent sit-in modelled on the farmers’ protest, at YPS Chowk in Mohali and along Sectors 52 and 53 in Chandigarh. The Pioneer lists Pal Singh France as convener and says the SGPC, farmer unions, the Akali Dal (Waris Punjab De), the Akali Dal (Punar Surjit) and Nihang organisations have backed it.

Key moments

• September 2023: in a High Court petition to clear the road at YPS Chowk, the Advocate-General said one side of the traffic had been restored (The Tribune).
• 20 January 2024: it stopped toll collection for about three hours at 13 toll plazas across Punjab (The Tribune).
• 14 November 2025: with the Samyukt Kisan Morcha and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha it set out for Delhi and was stopped at Shambhu on the Punjab-Haryana border. The sit-in ended after a Union Home Ministry official, Prashant S Lokhande, said the memorandum seeking the release of long-held Sikh prisoners would be forwarded to the Centre (The Tribune).
• 15 August 2026: a march toward the Governor’s residence in Chandigarh was met with tear gas, water cannon and shells dropped from a drone. Simranjit Singh Mann of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) was detained. Morcha leaders said police fired after protesters reached the barricades (ThePrint, from PTI).
• 21 August 2026: a Punjab bandh from 7 am to 2 pm closed markets and some bus services in several districts (ETV Bharat).
• 12 October 2026: Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann met the morcha and other Sikh and farmer delegations. He said Punjab would keep law and order if Hawara were given parole to see his ailing mother, that parole had not been granted, and that the matter now rested with the Centre (ThePrint, from PTI).

Where it stands today

The sit-in was in its 44th month in August 2026. Published reports record no release of the prisoners the morcha names and no parole for Hawara as of 12 October 2026.