72-year-old Bhai Lakhbir Singh Rode, nephew of Sikh na­tional hero Sant Jar­nail Singh Bhin­dran­wale -a no­table mar­tyr of the Indo-Sikh Bat­tle of June 1984 at Dar­bar Sahib, Am­rit­sar, and brother of for­mer Jathedar Akal Takht -Bhai Jas­bir Singh Rode, passed away in Pak­istan of heart fail­ure on 2 De­cem­ber, where he was cre­mated as per Sikh tra­di­tions. He had been liv­ing there for the last many decades. WSN re­ports.

Lakhbir Singh Rode was a no­table fig­ure as­so­ci­ated with the Sikh mil­i­tant move­ment, par­tic­u­larly dur­ing the tur­bu­lent pe­riod in Pun­jab, In­dia, in the 1980s and 1990s. He was linked with the Sikh mil­i­tant move­ment that sought an in­de­pen­dent Sikh state called Khal­is­tan.

Soft-spo­ken, ever-friendly, hum­ble, and com­mit­ted to the Panth, Lakhbir Singh’s jour­ney of life saw him move from vil­lage Rode in the Moga dis­trict of Pun­jab to Dubai and then to Canada, cul­mi­nat­ing in a life as a state­less per­son in Pak­istan.

Liv­ing in Canada dur­ing the eight­ies, Rode re­port­edly took on a lead­er­ship role in one of the mil­i­tant fac­tions ad­vo­cat­ing for Khal­is­tan -the In­ter­na­tional Sikh Youth Fed­er­a­tion, which has been pro­scribed in many coun­tries.

The In­dian gov­ern­ment had dubbed him as a most wanted per­son. He was a con­tro­ver­sial fig­ure and faced var­i­ous al­le­ga­tions. He was one of the longest-sur­viv­ing Sikh mil­i­tant lead­ers.

Since the late 80’s he has been camp­ing in Pak­istan. Some for­mer mil­i­tants have claimed that he was close to the Pak­istan leader Mian Nawaz Sharif when he was the Prime Min­is­ter.

It is note­wor­thy that Bhai Rode was in­stru­men­tal in the for­ma­tion of the Pak­istan Gur­d­wara Par­band­hak Com­mit­tee -PS­GPC dur­ing the Nawaz regime.

Dal Khalsa leader Kan­war Pal Singh, who knew him in­ti­mately has ex­pressed grief at his pass­ing away. Speak­ing to this re­porter, he said, “His role and con­tri­bu­tion to­wards the goal of Sikh in­de­pen­dence will be ever re­mem­bered. Sadly, the stress of liv­ing in iso­la­tion has taken its toll.”