Bibi Upkar Kaur

Bibi Upkar Kaur Khalsa led the women's wing of the All India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF) and is remembered as a Shaheed of the Teeja Ghallughara of June 1984. The account below rests on a single commemorative source, 1984 Tribute, which credits information from her family. It is not an official record, and details can differ between tellings.

1984 Tribute says she was born in 1962 in Karnal district, Haryana, to Sardar Meetpal Singh and Mata Bakshish Kaur. She joined the AISSF during college. In 1982 she set up many women's units in Punjab, and Bhai Amrik Singh Khalsa, the Federation's president, appointed her leader of its Women's Wing. The page says she recruited thousands of young women, organised Gurmat camps and was a noted speaker.

Key moments

• May 1984: about a month before the army attack, the AISSF magazine Shamsheer-e-Dast carried an article by her arguing that armed struggle is consistent with Sikh teaching, which 1984 Tribute reproduces.
• June 1984: she was near Baba Atal Rai and the Akaal Rest House with a group of women. Asked to leave the complex, she refused, saying "we will not." The page says she and the women resisted the army attack that began on 4 June.
• Night of 5 to 6 June: she, Bibi Paramjit Kaur and the wife of Harbhajan Singh Jora were surrounded by the army while moving towards the Atal Rai quarters. According to the page, she fired her revolver, and the three women attained Shaheedi.

She is remembered as a woman who led women in the Federation and who stayed inside Sri Harmandir Sahib with the Singhs when the army attacked.