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Tuesday, 14 July 2026
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India·Human Rights·Democracy·Disinformation

India bans film about Punjab rights martyr despite widespread public interest

Tuesday, 14 July 2026, 06:17 · 1 min read

India has effectively banned "Satluj," a biopic about Jaswant Singh Khalra — a bank employee turned human rights activist who documented the secret cremation of nearly 25,000 people killed by police during the Khalistan insurgency (a violent Sikh separatist movement in Punjab state during the 1980s and early 1990s) — after the film was pulled from the ZEE5 streaming platform just 48 hours after its release on July 3, on national security grounds. Khalra, who alleged that police had illegally cremated thousands of disappeared persons without notifying their families, was abducted from outside his home in 1995 and killed in custody; five officers are currently serving life sentences for his murder. Despite the ban, the film — starring one of India's biggest stars, Diljit Dosanjh — is now circulating widely via social media downloads and free community screenings at Sikh temples across Punjab, with critics calling it one of the most powerful Indian films in recent memory.

Sources
Al Jazeera EnglishWhy is India blocking film on a man who counted Punjab insurgency killings? ↗︎
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