Punjab Rights Forum

The Punjab Rights Forum came into existence on June 28, 2005 at a convention held in Ludhiana, Punjab, India, that had been organized by D. S. Gill, Chair of the International Human Rights Organisation (IHRO).

The floating of the Punjab Rights Forum was largely in response to the arrests of dozens of Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) terrorists and BKI sympathizers in Punjab and New Delhi after the apprehension of Jagtar Singh Hawara, the main accused in the bombings of two cinema halls in New Delhi during May 2005. Another cause for the formation of the Punjab Rights Forum was in response to the crackdown on members of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar), including the party's president, Simranjit Singh Mann and activists of the Dal Khalsa following a "Genocide Remembrance Parade" that had been carried out through the streets of Amritsar on June 5 in remembrance of those Sikh civilians and terrorists that had been slain by the Indian army during Operation Bluestar. The rally on June 5, which had drawn an enormous crowd and received widespread media attention across India, culminated at the Akal Takht, where members of the Dal Khalsa and Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) delivered "inflammatory speeches" calling for an independent Sikh state of Khalistan. Two days after the rally members of the Dal Khalsa and Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) began courting arrest on charges of sedition.

The formation of the Punjab Rights Forum brought together a number of Punjab-based pro-Khalistan political parties and organizations who were joined by a dozen odd human rights, religious and Kisan (farmers) groups in order to form a loose coalition to campaign on issues of human rights in the state.