Mohali (SAS Nagar)

Mohali, officially Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar (SAS Nagar), is a planned city beside Chandigarh, begun as a satellite of Chandigarh after Chandigarh became a Union Territory. Wikipedia says Chief Minister Zail Singh laid its foundation stone on 1 November 1975, and that it is named for Sahibzada Ajit Singh, the eldest son of Guru Gobind Singh, who died fighting at Chamkaur (Encyclopaedia of Sikhism). The district of SAS Nagar was cut out of Ropar and Patiala on 14 April 2006 as Punjab's 18th, and its own website points to the link with Chandigarh as the reason it has grown.

Key moments

• 7 January 2023: the Qaumi Insaaf Morcha begins a sit-in at the Chandigarh and Mohali border near YPS Chowk, after a march from Gurdwara Amb Sahib is stopped by police at the border. It demands the release of Bandi Singhs it says have finished their sentences, parole for Jagtar Singh Hawara, and justice for the 2015 sacrilege and police firings at Faridkot, Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan.
• August 2023: a Punjab and Haryana High Court bench hearing a public interest petition gives the Mohali administration and the morcha a “last opportunity” to keep the roads to Chandigarh open. The tents have stood for over eight months, with the langar still running.
• 28 March and 1 April 2025: a Mohali court finds the self-styled pastor Bajinder Singh guilty of rape and sentences him to life, on a complaint registered in 2018 at Zirakpur police station; five other accused are acquitted.
• 15 August 2026: protesters try to march from YPS Chowk to the Governor's residence in Chandigarh. Police fire tear gas and use water cannon, protesters allege injuries, and Simranjit Singh Mann is detained with two others (Daily Pioneer).
• 21 August 2026: the morcha's Punjab bandh runs from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Markets close in many cities and buses are hit. The morcha is backed by the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar), Waris Punjab De and farmer groups, and Hawara's father calls it peaceful.

What it means today. The morcha, led by convener Pal Singh France with Hawara's father Gurcharan Singh as organiser, had sat at the Mohali border for about three and a half years by August 2026.