Jathedar Sukhdev Singh Babbar was the leader of Babbar Khalsa International, a Sikh militant organisation whose objective is to create an independent Sikh country Khalistan and which uses armed attacks, bombings, kidnappings and murders to accomplish their goals. He founded and commanded BKI continuously for 14 years until he was killed in 1992.
Early life
Sukhdev Singh Dasuwal was born on 9 August 1955 to Jind Singh and Harnam Kaur in the village of Dassuwal, Patti, Amritsar, Punjab, India. He studied up to the middle school level. He had three brothers. His elder brother, Mehal Singh "Babbar" is also an active leader of the Babbar Khalsa International. The older brother of all three, Angrej Singh, is blind. His family owned of land in the village of Dassuwal. The wives of Sukhdev Singh Babbar and Mehal Singh Babbar are sisters who belonged to the adjoining village of Ghariala
As per The Tribune, the day of the Sikh–Nirankari clashes was also the day when his marriage was fixed. On this day, he took the pledge to take revenge on the Nirankaris. He founded the organization Babbar Khalsa International along with Talwinder Singh Parmar with the objective to secede from India and form the state of Khalistan for Sikhs. The first Unit of BKI was founded in Canada in 1981. This organization has presence in the United States, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Belgium, Norway, Switzerland and Pakistan. Babbar Khalsa International became a major participant in Khalistan movement under his guidance and participated in hundreds of operations against Indian security forces and remained active in several Indian states. Sukhdev Singh Babbar was the president of the Babbar Khalsa International. It was considered as the best armed and funded among the Khalistani militant groups in Punjab State with an objective to create an independent state for Sikhs, known as Khalistan. During the Khalistan movement, Sukhdev Singh Babbar was a militant chief of Babbar Khalsa International.
Death
He died on 9 August 1992 in a gunfight when heavily armed policemen stormed a villa in the city ofPatiala in early August and captured him. At the time, he was India's most wanted khalistani extremist. It is reported that India used the cat system, to trap Babbar. He was captured with the help of a former Babbar member turned police-cat, who informed on him in exchange for a reward of ₹ 10,00,000. This former member helped trap Babbar by arranging a meeting of top Babbar militants, ostensibly to work out future strategy. For helping neutralize the chief of the most powerful group of militants in the state, the turned member also received a full third of the reward on Singh.
Aftermath
After the death of Babbar, his followers killed policemen in retaliation for his death. After his death, Babbar's "king-like" lifestyle came out in public and caused public criticism. The Babbar Khalsa proclaimed itself as disciplined and puritanical Sikh militant organisation. In contrast to the ideals of Babbar Khalsa, the head of the organisation, Babbar was discovered living in a palatial bungalow called 'White House' in Patiala. He had assumed a fake identity of Jasmer Singh, a contractor to evade detection. Babbar was already married with his family consisting of his wife and three children who lived at his ancestral Dassuwal village in Tarn Taran. His bungalow in Patiala was shared with a singer Jawahar Kaur and his illegitimate son. Kaur was a member of "Nabhe Wallian Bibian Da Jatha", a group of devotional singers who were popular for their piety and talent. The construction of White House was estimated to have costed in excess of ₹30 lakh in 1980s. The bungalow included modern luxurious items such as Air conditioners, dish antennae, VCRs, colour TVs, modern cameras, and costly Kitchen amenities. Expensive clothes, large amount of jewellery and video copies of blue movies were found in the house. Apart from White house bungalow at Patiala, a bungalow named the Pink House at Rajpura and a third bungalow located in the Model Town were owned by Babbar. After his death his family members left their home and moved abroad. A major portion of his ancestral house of the Babbar Khalsa chief now stands demolished and the remaining dilapidated two-room set is locked.
