Gajinder Singh Khalsa, the founder and patron of Dal Khalsa, reportedly passed away from a heart attack at a hospital in Pakistan on Thursday at the age of 74. Dal Khalsa has yet to officially confirm his death. He is survived by his daughter.
Gajinder Singh was one of five members of the previously banned organization, Dal Khalsa, who hijacked Indian Airlines flight IC-423 on September 29, 1981. The flight, which had taken off from Delhi’s Palam airport for Srinagar, carried 111 passengers and 6 crew members. The hijackers forced the plane to land in Lahore, demanding the release of several Khalistani extremists, including Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.
The hijackers were arrested and served a life sentence from September 30, 1981, to October 31, 1994, in Pakistan. Following the hijacking incident, the Indian government banned Dal Khalsa in 1982, allowing it to resume overground activities a decade later. In January 2002, the Indian government listed Gajinder Singh Khalsa among the 20 “most wanted” and sought his extradition from Pakistan. After their release in 1994, two of the hijackers returned to India, while the remaining three stayed in Pakistan.
In 2020, the Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of Sikhs, decided to honor Gajinder Singh Khalsa with the title of ‘Sikh Warrior in Exile.’
Reacting to the announcement, Dal Khalsa spokesman Kanwar Pal Singh criticized the Indian government’s view of Gajinder Singh. “The decision of the government to label him as a ‘terrorist’ is unjustified. He is not a killer or a criminal. He is a man of politics. He wanted to change the system. He has never shown any prejudice or discrimination towards any religion or culture. He struggled for Sikh rights but never took up arms to accomplish the mission. The charges of sedition against him don’t fall under the definition of terrorism. Sedition is not a terrorist act. He has already spent 13 years and four months in Lahore jail for his act,” he said.
Kanwar Pal further explained that while Dal Khalsa activists did hijack the aircraft to Lahore, none of them carried firearms or harmed any passengers. He mentioned that Gajinder Singh went to Germany in July 1996 but was deported to Pakistan due to pressure from India. “A petition was filed by our party activists in the administrative court of Germany protesting the deportation of Gajinder Singh back to Pakistan. Since then, he is in exile,” he added.
In addition to Gajinder Singh, the other hijackers included Tajinderpal Singh, Satnam Singh, Jasbir Singh Cheema, and Karan Singh. Tajinderpal returned to India in December 1997, and Satnam in 1999. A Delhi court in August 2018 acquitted Tajinderpal and Satnam of charges of waging war against the country, granting them “benefit of doubt” as the prosecution failed to prove the charges beyond “reasonable doubt.