Bhai Sukhwinder Singh Sangha

Sukhwinder Singh Sangha was a Kharku of the Tarn Taran area who rose in the Bhindranwale Tiger Force of Khalistan (BTFK) under Baba Gurbachan Singh Manochahal and then led a faction of his own. Little about him was published in the press of the time that could be found. The sources used here are a Wikipedia article, which carries a notice that its sourcing is thin, and a Sikh community memorial page, which honours him as a Shaheed and whose claims are marked as such below.

He was born in 1965 at Sangha village near Tarn Taran, the eldest of three brothers, and was a farmer before he joined the movement. The memorial page says he studied for a BA at Guru Arjan Dev College, was president of the AISSF unit there, and heard Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale's discourses at Sri Darbar Sahib in 1982.

Key moments

• 1986 to 1987: he worked in the Majha with Ranjit Singh Rana Tharu, whom the memorial page says was killed on 24 August 1988.
• 1987: he joined the BTFK under Manochahal and became its lieutenant general.
• 1990: the BTFK split into two factions, one under Manochahal and one under Sangha. Wikipedia dates his departure to February 1990. The memorial page attributes the split partly to the killing of Manochahal's brother Mahinder Singh in an ambush, which it describes as a mistake that opponents later blamed on Sangha, and partly to ideological differences. These are the memorial page's claims. His faction later joined the Panthic Committee.
• 3 November 1990: he and four companions died in an encounter at Bhullar village in Tarn Taran district. Wikipedia says police and CRPF forces led by SP (Operations) Harjit Singh surrounded the village on an informant's tip, that the fight lasted about five hours, and that a reward of 22 lakh rupees had been placed on him. The memorial page says he and his companions fought until their ammunition ran out.
• 24 November 1990: SP Harjit Singh was killed when a land mine exploded beneath his car near his home at Tarn Taran. UPI reported that police blamed the Bhindranwale Tiger Force, which had issued a death threat against him the month before over his alleged part in killing some of its members. Wikipedia says the groups claimed it as revenge.

What he is remembered for: the Sikh memorial pages honour him as a Shaheed who, they say, protected civilians and acted against extortionists, and Wikipedia says some Sikh groups later called him the 20th-century Hari Singh Nalwa. Wikipedia's article on the BTFK describes his faction as responsible for many attacks between 1989 and 1992 on police and security personnel and political figures. The memorial page denies that he was indiscriminate. No independent record was found that settles the difference between these accounts.