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The historical events behind Dosanjh’s film are rooted in the Punjab insurgency (1984-1995), a decade of violent militancy and heavy-handed state counter-insurgency operations
Diljit Dosanjh’s Satluj Is Removed From Zee5 In India.
Diljit Dosanjh’s film Satluj (formerly titled Punjab ’95) has been removed from the ZEE5 streaming platform in India just 48 hours after its digital release. Authorities flagged the politically sensitive project due to concerns that its raw portrayal of police brutality could be misused by “anti-India forces”.
The historical events behind Dosanjh’s film are rooted in the Punjab insurgency (1984-1995), a decade of violent militancy and heavy-handed state counter-insurgency operations.
Directed by Honey Trehan, the biopic features Dosanjh as Jaswant Singh Khalra, a prominent human rights activist who investigated and exposed mass extrajudicial killings and illegal cremations of thousands of unidentified youth by the Punjab Police.
The film highlights how a local bank manager became a pivotal human rights figure, culminating in his own forced disappearance and murder by state actors in September 1995.
THE GENESIS OF THE CONFLICT: 1947 TO THE EARLY 1980S
The friction featured in the background of Satluj traces its origin to the 1947 Partition of India. The division of Punjab left many in the minority Sikh population feeling politically and economically marginalised within India’s federal structure.
Anandpur Sahib Resolution (1973): The Akali Dal formalised demands for greater regional autonomy, economic self-sufficiency, and religious freedom. The central government, however, viewed the document as secessionist and subversive.
Rise of Militancy: By the late 1970s and early 1980s, the movement grew radicalised under the leadership of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who demanded an independent Sikh state called Khalistan.
THE CATALYSTS: OPERATION BLUE STAR AND THE 1984 POGROMS
Two defining events in 1984 accelerated the region into an all-out armed insurgency and complete breakdown of trust between the state and the civilian populace.
Operation Blue Star (June 1984): The Indian Army launched a military assault on the Golden Temple in Amritsar to flush out armed militants. The operation resulted in heavy casualties, severe damage to the Akal Takht, and widespread outrage among Sikhs globally.
Anti-Sikh Riots (November 1984): Following the assassination of PM Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards, state-orchestrated violence broke out against Sikhs in Delhi and other major cities, leaving thousands dead.
THE ERA OF ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES
Between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s, the Indian state deployed aggressive counter-insurgency strategies led by the Punjab Police and paramilitary forces. While the operations successfully dismantled the armed militancy, they triggered massive human rights violations.
Security forces were routinely accused of picking up young Sikh men under the suspicion of being militants, executing them in staged encounters, and labelling them “unidentified”.
Entire families were subjected to interrogation and surveillance. The atmosphere of fear grew so intense that the local population often feared the police more than the active militants.
THE CRUSADE OF JASWANT SINGH KHALRA
The core narrative of Satluj focuses on Jaswant Singh Khalra’s methodology for uncovering this hidden history. A bank director from Amritsar, Khalra began his activism while searching for a colleague’s missing brother.
In 1995, Khalra travelled to international platforms, including Canada and the UK, to present his report and warn the global community of the systemic state violence occurring in Punjab. Upon returning to India, Khalra was explicitly threatened by senior police officials. On September 6, 1995, while washing his car outside his Amritsar home, he was abducted in broad daylight by personnel from the Punjab Police.
He was held in illegal custody, tortured, and subsequently murdered. His body was thrown into the Harike Central/Sutlej river ecosystem — a grim reality that gives the movie its final title, Satluj.
Following an extensive legal battle led by his widow, Paramjit Kaur Khalra, and a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe, six Punjab Police officers were convicted in 2005 for Khalra’s abduction and murder. The Supreme Court of India upheld their life sentences in 2011, acknowledging that the police had systematically eliminated young individuals under the pretext of fighting militancy.
THE SATLUJ CONTROVERSY
The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) initially demanded 127 cuts, including altering the death figures, deleting the name of the protagonist, and omitting geographical references like “Punjab” or “Tarn Taran”. After years of delay, the film was released digitally on ZEE5 on July 3, 2026, under the title Satluj. However, citing concerns that it could be “misused by anti-India forces”, the platform pulled the movie down within 48 hours, sparking fresh political outcry across Punjab.
With agency inputs
About the Author
At the news desk for 20 years, the story of her life has revolved around finding pun, facts while reporting, on radio, heading a daily newspaper desk, teaching mass media students to now editing speci…Read More
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