A DECADE ago they were up in arms against the system. Now they want to be a part of it. A number of former Punjab militants are trying their hand at politics. ‘‘We continue to seek Khalistan but by democratic means,’’ says Kanwarpal Singh, a former Babbar Khalsa activist. He joined the movement after Operation Bluestar and 12 years later was arrested in Bangkok by the Intelligence Bureau. He was brought to India and put in prison for eight months. Today as the person responsible for reviving the Dal Khalsa in 1998, he is trying to create space for his party. ‘‘It does not matter that we are only a small minority right now. After all, all revolutions begin with only a handful of committed people.’’

He may be giving the coming assembly elections a skip but that’s only because his target is the 2012 elections. ‘‘Right now it would be premature to contest,’’ he says.

SATNAM Singh Paonta Sahib, founder member of Dal Khalsa, hijacked a plane in 1981 to protest the arrest of Bhindranwale. He spent 14 years in a jail in Pakistan before being brought back to India. Today, he heads the party and spends most of his time in his Chandigarh home.

Then there’s the case of Rajinder Singh Mehta and Amarjit Singh Chawla. As office bearers of the All India Sikh Students Federation, they were close associates of the Damdami Taksal chief Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. Along with Virsa Singh Valtoha and Harminder Singh Gill, they virtually called the shots in Punjab. All four owed allegiance to a faction of Sikh Students Federation led by Harminder Singh Sandhu and were arrested during Operation Bluestar.

... contd.