Baba Gurbachan Singh Manochahal

Baba Gurbachan Singh Manochahal was a Kharku commander and head of the Bhindranwale Tiger Force of Khalistan (BTFK), who also held, at different times, the title of Jathedar of Sri Akal Takht Sahib as named by the Panthic Committee. UPI described him in 1993 as a confidant of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. He was killed by Punjab Police in late February 1993.

Wikipedia, drawing on press reports, says he was born in 1954 in the village of Manochahal in Tarn Taran district, that he became a close aide of Sant Bhindranwale after the 1978 clashes with the Nirankaris, and that he formed the BTFK in 1987 after leaving the Panthic Committee. Wikipedia is the only source cited here for those details.

Key points

• January 1987: a 2002 Tribune report on the memoir of a former Amritsar deputy commissioner, Sarbjit Singh, says Manochahal resigned as Jathedar of Akal Takht in a recorded message played at the Sarbat Khalsa of 26 January 1987, stepping aside for Bhai Darshan Singh, who had joined as jathedar on 31 December 1986.
• 24 June 1988: a reprint of a Panthic Committee statement, issued from Chandigarh, announced the five-member committee's appointment of Manochahal, described as head of the Bhindranwale Tiger Force, as Jathedar of Akal Takht. The committee also named its own jathedars for Keshgarh Sahib and Damdama Sahib and head granthis for Harmandir Sahib and Akal Takht.
• 5 February 1993: a report from Amritsar said that on an audio cassette he had announced he was quitting as Jathedar "in the interest of the unity among the militants". The report described the appointment as about two years old, which differs from the 1988 reprint. Police questioned the cassette's authenticity.
• Late February 1993: he was killed in an encounter with Punjab Police. UPI reported that he had been blamed for more than 1,000 killings, and that Balwinder Singh was named new chief of the BTFK, only to be killed by police in a gun battle near Amritsar. Wikipedia places the end at Rataul, in Tarn Taran district, on 28 February 1993, after he escaped a police dragnet in the village of Bagrian the day before, and quotes the police chief, KPS Gill: "Now I can say that we have finished militancy in Punjab."

The sources disagree on how and when he became Jathedar, and on the exact day and circumstances of his death. The 1993 Rataul operation is told in its own entry.