Harpal Singh Cheema

This is Harpal Singh Cheema of Dal Khalsa, a human rights activist and lawyer. He is not the Aam Aadmi Party MLA for Dirba who is Punjab's finance minister and has the same name (The Tribune).

Dal Khalsa's name was announced in Chandigarh on 13 August 1978 and its first major protest sought the release of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale (The World Sikh News). It works for a sovereign Punjab.

• 20 May 2016: Dal Khalsa and Panch Pardhani announced a merger, with the merged party keeping the Dal Khalsa name and an "agenda of a sovereign Punjab". Cheema was named working president and given until 13 August to restructure the party and its state units. Dal Khalsa founder Gajinder Singh and Panch Pardhani founder Daljit Singh were to remain its guiding force (The Tribune).
• 24 September 2017: the party appointed 15 office-bearers and 25 working committee members at Fatehgarh Sahib, and the Tribune names Cheema as president. Paramjit Singh of Tanda became secretary general, the first youth to hold the post.
• 2 December 2017: on his return from a Bangkok conference titled "Role of Religious Leaders in Prevention of Genocide in South Asia", he was held for two hours at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi. Dal Khalsa's account, given by its spokesperson Kanwarpal Singh to Sikh Siyasat News and relayed by Asia Samachar, is that his passport was "confiscated as per the directions of the Government of India". No government statement was found.

He is remembered as the lawyer who headed Dal Khalsa after the merger of two pro-sovereignty Sikh parties. The sources opened for this profile do not report his term of office, an election to it, or his later activity, so none is stated here.