Fact Check: Movie ‘Satluj’ Spurs Fake Numbers of Victims of Panjab Violence

July

2026

With the immense popularity of the movie 'Satluj', a debate is raging on the number of deaths, especially of Hindus, in militant violence in Panjab in the 1980s–90s. Earlier, when senior politicians would mention 25K–35K deaths, the implication was they included Sikhs and Hindus. However, in the battle of narratives around the movie, based on real-life incidents of the disappearance and trial of slain human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, these figures are now being projected as specific numbers of ‘Hindus killed'. On a Right to Information query by Lokesh Sharma, filed in 2015, the government of India's responded that during the militancy years (1980–2000), 11,694 citizens lost their lives, 8,069 militants were killed, and 1,784 security force personnel were either killed or injured in Panjab. Author Amandeep Sandhu cites this figure in his book PANJAB Journeys Through Fault Lines. Journalist and author Jagtar Singh, in his book Rivers on Fire: Khalistan Struggle, reproduced a reply of Panjab government to a question by Indian National Congress Member of Legislative Assembly, Tarlochan Singh, in the Panjab Legislative Assembly on 14 Oct 2005, which gave out yearly and district-wise data from 1982–1995. He puts the number at 11,336. Paul Wallace's essay Political Violence and Terrorism in India: The Crisis of Identity, in the book Terrorism in Context, edited by Martha Crenshaw, reproduced union Ministry of Home Affairs data, which says 3,871 Hindus and 6,177 Sikhs were killed by militants from 1981–1991. V N Narayanan in his book Tryst With Terror Punjab's Turbulent Decade, provides the same number of Hindu killings but puts the number of Sikhs at 6,207 between 1981–91. These show the number of Hindus victims being bandied is false and an exaggerated projection. On those disappeared and killed extrajudicially, the human rights organization, Ensaaf, has counted and verified 5,316 victims of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in Panjab from 1981–2008. The estimated figure of 25K came from Khalra’s speech at Khalsa Darbar Gurdwara, Ontario in April 1995. The figure was an extrapolation of his findings at the cremation grounds in Durgiana, Amritsar city, and Patti and Tarn Taran, where he found 2,097 unclaimed bodies, out of which around a quarter were Hindus, says former Chairperson of Human Rights Wing of Akali Dal, Jaspal Singh Dhillon (earlier coverage).