Who was KPS Gill, the controversial supercop, and what was Punjab '95?

After three decades, the life of KPS Gill, the Supercop hailed for helping end militancy in Punjab and Assam but always shrouded in controversy, is back in the spotlight. The reason is Diljit Dosanjh-starrer Satluj, earlier named Panjab '95, and the sudden removal of the movie from ZEE5. Who was Gill, and what happened in Punjab in 1995?

"There was never a movement for Khalistan. Even [Jarnail Singh] Bhindranwale rarely said so clearly. He would make a statement [for Khalistan], then deny it, and then deny the denial. Bhindranwale and his ideologues used the Two-Nation Theory, the same verbiage," said IPS officer Kanwar Pal Singh (KPS) Gill on the Khalistani movement while speaking to India Today Magazine in an interview in 1993.

This remark of KPS Gill was a reflection of his confidence. Gill was a controversial and, at the same time, a cop credited by supporters for crushing the Khalistani insurgency through an aggressive counter-insurgency campaign that transformed Punjab's security landscape in the early 1990s.

For his admirers, Gill was the "Supercop" who restored peace in Punjab, a state ravaged by militancy. For his critics, he symbolised an era marked by allegations of grave human rights abuses.

More than three decades later, Gill, who passed away in 2017, has once again returned to public debate, this time because of actor-singer Diljit Dosanjh-starrer Satluj. The film, based on the life of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, portrays the disappearance and alleged killing of Khalra in 1995 after he exposed alleged secret cremations carried out during Punjab's counter-militancy years.

Although Gill was never convicted in connection with Khalra's murder and consistently denied any involvement, eyewitnesses and human rights groups accused him of orchestrating the entire conspiracy. Khalra was abducted in 1995 and never found. A CBI probe said he was murdered, but his body was never recovered.

The controversy surrounding the Diljit-starrer film, relating to prolonged censorship, failure to secure a theatrical release, and subsequent removal from an OTT platform have renewed the debate about Gill's legacy and the contentious methods adopted during Punjab's fight against militancy and Khalistani terrorism.

Veteran actor Kanwaljit Singh plays KPS Gill in Satluj, a movie that was earlier titled Panjab '95. The '95 is a reference to the year 1995 when Khalra was abducted and murdered.

BORN IN PUNJAB, KPS GILL STARTED HIS CAREER IN ASSAM

Gill was born in Ludhiana, Punjab, on December 29, 1934. Although born in Punjab, he was brought up in Simla (now Shimla) in the Himalayan foothills after Indian Independence in 1947. His father, Rachpal Singh Gill, was a senior government engineer, while his mother, Amrit Kaur, died while he was still a schoolboy. His father later remarried.

According to an obituary published in The Guardian, Gill's childhood friend, author Reginald Massey, described him as an above-average student but a withdrawn child, possibly shaped by the grief of losing his mother at an early age.

Gill completed his degree in English from Punjab University before qualifying for the Indian Police Service (IPS) in 1958. He joined the Assam-Meghalaya cadre, where he would spend the formative years of his policing career.

Gill started his tenure as an IPS officer in Assam, and his stint there remains among the most controversial chapters of his career after that in Punjab.

Gill served as Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) during the height of the Assam Agitation (1979-1985), the mass movement led by the All Assam Students' Union (AASU) against illegal immigration. His reputation as a tough officer was severely dented after the death of Khargeshwar Talukdar, a 22-year-old AASU leader revered as the first of the agitation's 855 martyrs.

KPS GILL ALLEGEDLY ORDERED BRUTAL LATHI-CHARGE AGAINST ASSAM STUDENTS

Talukdar died on December 10, 1979, after Assam Police cracked down on protesters attempting to prevent Begum Abida Ahmed, wife of former President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, from filing her nomination papers in Barpeta.

Protesters accused Gill, who was leading the police operation, of ordering a brutal lathi-charge that fatally injured Talukdar.

The Assam agitation witnessed attacks on several Bengali-speaking residents, many of whom were viewed by sections of the movement as illegal immigrants or outsiders.

Years later, Gill returned to Gill returned to Assam as security adviser to the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) government and remained vocal on issues ranging from the 1983 Nellie massacre to the implementation of the Assam Accord. However, for many in the state, his legacy continues to be overshadowed by the Talukdar episode.

GILL'S STINT IN PUNJAB AND THE RETURN OF NORMALCY

Gill's defining years came in Punjab – his home state, where he was drafted to combat the Khalistani insurgency that escalated after Operation Blue Star in 1984 and the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi later that year.

Gill first took over as Director General of Police (DGP) in 1988, when militancy had engulfed large parts of the Punjab. One of his biggest successes came during Operation Black Thunder II in May 1988, when security forces removed armed militants from the Golden Temple complex through a prolonged siege, negotiations, and precision operations, avoiding the large-scale destruction witnessed during Operation Blue Star.

Gill completed his first tenure as Punjab DGP in December 1990 before serving briefly as Director General of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). He returned as Punjab DGP in late 1991, backed by then-Chief Minister Beant Singh, and launched an even more aggressive counter-insurgency campaign.

Gill's strategy relied heavily on intelligence-led operations, strengthening local policing, rewarding officers involved in anti-militancy operations, and maintaining relentless pressure on militant groups.

Violence declined dramatically over the next few years in Punjab, and by the mid-1990s the Khalistani insurgency had largely been crushed. Many contemporaries hailed him as the officer who restored normalcy to Punjab.

ALLEGATIONS OF KPS GILL'S INVOLVEMENT IN JASWANT SINGH KHALRA'S KILLING

Gill's record as a supercop remains contested. Human rights organisations accused the Punjab Police under his leadership of fake encounters, enforced disappearances and custodial killings during the anti-insurgency campaign.

Gill consistently defended the force's actions, arguing that extraordinary circumstances required extraordinary measures.

One of the most enduring controversies concerns the abduction and the murder of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra.

Khalra had documented alleged secret cremations of thousands of unidentified persons by Punjab Police before he was abducted outside his Amritsar residence on September 6, 1995.

A subsequent CBI investigation found that Khalra had been illegally detained before being murdered.

Six Punjab Police officials were eventually convicted of the kidnapping and murder. Gill was never convicted in the case, and he repeatedly denied any role in Khalra's murder.

CONTROVERSIES SURROUNDING GILL DID NOT STOP EVEN AFTER RETIREMENT

After all his years in service, loathed by some, revered as a hero by many, Gill retired from the Punjab Police on December 31, 1995. He received extensions beyond the normal age of superannuation due to the security situation in Punjab. "I'd been through three extensions, I can't be in Punjab forever," Gill told India Today Magazine in 1996.

His departure came months after the assassination of Chief Minister Beant Singh in 1995 and amid criticism over security lapses. Beant Singh was killed by Khalistani outfit Babbar Khalsa International in a car blast in Chandigarh.

After retirement, Gill founded the Institute of Conflict Management in New Delhi and wrote extensively on terrorism and internal security.

In 1996, however, Gill ended up in another major controversy when he was found guilty of sexually harassing senior IAS officer Rupan Deol Bajaj at an official party. The conviction significantly dented his public image.

Gill later served as president of the Indian Hockey Federation and remained an influential voice on national security issues. In 2012, activists based in the United Kingdom successfully campaigned to prevent him from attending the London Olympics, alleging that he was responsible for widespread human rights violations during Punjab's militancy years.

KPS Gill passed away in 2017, leaving behind one of the most polarising legacies in modern Indian policing.

Militancy largely ended in Punjab by 1993, but the reference to 1995 is the year when Khalra was abducted and murdered. Though he was never convicted in the case, the allegations hung around Gill like a phantom.

To many, KPS Gill was the officer who defeated one of India's most violent insurgencies. To others, he remains inseparable from allegations of excesses committed in the name of restoring law and order.

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