Diljit Dosanjh is all set to headline a biopic based on the life of Shaheed Jaswant Singh Khalra. Paramjit Kaur Khalra, wife of the late martyr, has released a statement announcing the same.
The statement read, "In last couple of years multiple people had approached us for making a movie on life and work of Shaheed Jaswant Singh Khalra but most groups wanted to do crowd funding to produce the movie which we do not want to be part of. So Khalra Family decided to give the permissions for this project to Mr. Honey Trehan and team in which Daljeet Dosanjh is playing the role. Khalra Mission Organization is not involved in this project and family's association to this project is to review the script and provide inputs. We will also review the final movie once compelte for the final go/no-go".
The statement added, "We are aware of concerns within the community that Bollywood has in past misrepresented Sikh Sangrah movement and we also do share the same concerns. We will try our best to provide feedback to the film production team and keep the narrative on the right track".
Diljit shared the statement on his social media handle.
Who Was Jaswant Singh Khalra?
Jaswant Singh Khalra was a prominent human rights activist. He was the director of a bank in Amritsar during the militancy period of Punjab. Khalra researched and created a list of Sikh men who went missing after Operation Blue Star. He collected information on thousands of Sikhs who had been killed and illegally cremated by the police.
Khalra was also investigating other cases, including the custodial killing of Behla, human-shield case concerning the death of seven civilians, cremation of 25,000 unidentified bodies in Punjab and that the police had killed about 2,000 policemen not collaborating in counter-terror operations. The CBI had concluded that the police had unlawfully cremated 2,097 people in Taran Taran district alone.
Throughout his life, Khalra fought to provide justice to his fellow Sikh men and their families. He was last seen in front of his house in 1995, from where he disappeared. A witness had given a statement that he was arrested by the cops, but the latter denied. Later, it was found that Khalra was held at the Taran Taran police station, and officers involved in it were given life sentences.