Khalistani terrorists played havoc in Punjab during the 1980s and early 1990s demanding a separate state for Sikhs. The violent movement took thousands of lives including then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. On 18th May, it marked 31 years to the kidnapping of ML Manchanda – an All India Radio employee – by Khalistani terrorists. He was subsequently killed in captivity and his body was found on 27 May 1992.
ML Manchanda was the director of the All India Radio station in Patiala, Punjab. As the chief engineer of the station, he was one of the responsible decision-makers for the broadcast of various programs from the radio station. Khalistani terrorists demanded that no Hindi show should be run from the radio station in Punjab. They demanded that the media adhere to a code of conduct, which included broadcasting in the local language of Punjabi rather than Hindi.
To impose this demand, the Babbar Khalsa group abducted ML Manchanda who was then the director of All India Radio’s Patiala station on 18th May 1992. The terrorists continued their demand and did not agree to release Manchanda until the demand gets fulfilled.
The kidnappers threatened to send one arm of Manchanda to the Tribune office and another to the office of Punjabi newspaper Ajit. The government of India did not agree to the demand of the terrorists. Thus, these terrorists killed ML Manchanda. Gurdial Singh Babbar, Amrik Singh Kauli, and other radical Khalistanis of the Kauli group were involved in this. Manchanda was survived by his wife and three daughters.
He was killed because he refused to stop broadcasting the news & programmed in "Hindi language"
— Āryā_Anvikṣā 🪷 (@Arya_Anviksha_) May 18, 2023
Photo of wife and family of Mohan Lal Manchanda praying for his safety & to be free. Doordarshan Kendra in Jalandhar went off & forced to drop Hindi program for safety of employees. pic.twitter.com/Z6ccUbiavH
ML Manchanda was first shot dead and later beheaded. His beheaded dead body was left near Rajpura in the Patiala district of Punjab while his severed head was left in a busy traffic intersection in Ambala – a town in Haryana situated close to the Punjab border. His body was identified by the OM tattoo on his hand that was seen on the torso.
The head was stitched up with the torso at Rajpura Mortuary, and the body was handed over to the family after an autopsy.
ML Manchanda’s gruesome murder was followed by a strike by the journalists, artists, technicians, and other staff members of the All India Radio and Doordarshan. The strike spread across Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, and Jammu and Kashmir. The strike lasted for a few days during which the employees demanded insurance and protection from the government. The family of the slain AIR employee was given ex gratia financial help by the government.
The kidnapping and murder of ML Manchanda was not the only case in which government employees were targeted by the Khalistani terrorist. there were many other cases in Punjab in which the Khalistani terrorists killed government servants for not complying with their various demands. Just like Machanda, R.K Talib, Director of AIR Chandigarh was killed in 1990 for not following the Khalistani “Code of Conduct”.
Presently, the Khalistani movement in Punjab has started to relocate its roots as organisations like ‘Waris Punjab De’ caused a law and order situation in the state in the recent past. Amritpal Singh of this organisation who mobilised thousands of Khalistan supporters in the state was on the radar of the law enforcement agencies. He was on the run for a few weeks before he surrendered.
The problem has escalated especially after Aam Aadmi Party won the state assembly election in 2022 and Bhagwant Mann became the chief minister of the border state. It is notable that as the murder of the AIR station director completes 31 years, no populist flagbearer of the freedom of the press has dared to call out the Khalistani terrorism that prevails in parts of India and abroad.
