Darkness Defied | Episode 5 | Chapter 7 – Back in the Battlefield

Darkness Defied | Episode 5 | Chapter 7 – Back in the Battlefield

The Khalis Audio Library continues with Chapter 7 of Darkness Defied: The Life and Legacy of Jaswant Singh Khalra, written by Bhai Ajmer Singh.

Chapter 7 – Back in the Battlefield marks a major turning point in Bhai Jaswant Singh Khalra’s life.

Returning to Panjab in 1992, Bhai Sahib enters an environment of intense state repression. Rather than remaining on the sidelines, he throws himself into political and human rights work, helping establish the Human Rights Wing and beginning the painstaking process of documenting what was happening across Panjab.

We follow some of his early investigations: travelling from village to village, speaking directly with families, gathering names and testimony, challenging fabricated police encounters, and confronting the disturbing practice of bodies being cremated as “unidentified” or “unclaimed” even as their families searched for them. 

The chapter covers the Behla incident, his investigation into the persecution of 43 members of Baba Gurbachan Singh Manochal’s family, his efforts to recover the bodies of those killed by the state, and the extraordinary Patti case, where a man declared dead in a police encounter was discovered still alive at the hospital, before being taken away and killed.   

We also continue to see the political thinker encountered in Chapter 6. Bhai Sahib reflects critically on aspects of the militant movement, electoral politics and the direction of the Sikh struggle, refusing both simplistic condemnation and uncritical praise. 

With only three chapters remaining, we are now entering the final part of his extraordinary life.

🎧 A free resource from Khalis House Publishing.

Written by Bhai Ajmer Singh
Audio retold with additional commentary by Ranveer Singh

🎼 Intro & outro music: Sarangi Noir by Pree Mayall

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