KPS Gill: The Officer Who Broke the Back of Punjab’s Terror Years

In the 1980s and early 1990s, Punjab stood on the edge of collapse. The green fields that had once fed India were shadowed by the gun. Bombings, targeted killings, and armed insurgency were tearing apart the state’s social fabric. Fear lived in the streets, and the dream of Khalistan threatened to split the nation. It was in this crucible that Kanwar Pal Singh Gill, a 1958-batch IPS officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre, was brought in to lead the Punjab Police. By the time he left, Punjab was breathing again.

KPS Gill was born in 1934 in Ludhiana district, Punjab. After graduating from Delhi’s St. Stephen’s College, he joined the Indian Police Service. His early career in Assam had already shown his mettle in counterinsurgency, where he dealt with the ULFA and other extremist groups. But it was his tenure in Punjab that would etch his name into the national memory.

When Gill took charge as Director General of Police in 1988, the Khalistani insurgency had reached its most dangerous peak. Militants operated with near impunity. Political assassinations, extortion, and the targeting of civilians were everyday news. Police morale was battered, and many feared Punjab was slipping beyond Delhi’s control.

Gill’s strategy was both simple and uncompromising. He rebuilt the police force into a motivated, disciplined, and intelligence-driven unit. He empowered local police stations, improved coordination with the central forces, and focused on breaking militant networks systematically. He understood that counterinsurgency was as much about intelligence and precision as it was about force.

His leadership saw the neutralisation of some of the most dangerous militant commanders of the era, and the dismantling of their support structures. By the mid-1990s, the insurgency was effectively over. For this, he was hailed as the man who “broke the back” of Punjab’s militancy.

But Gill’s role went beyond the battlefield. He worked to restore the confidence of ordinary Punjabis. He encouraged festivals, sports, and community events to reclaim public spaces from fear. One of his post-retirement passions was promoting hockey as president of the Indian Hockey Federation, where he pushed for professionalisation of the sport.

KPS Gill was not without controversy. Critics raised questions about human rights violations during the anti-militancy operations, and his detractors painted him as a hardliner. Gill himself was unapologetic about his methods, arguing that in the face of an armed movement that targeted civilians, a soft approach would have meant surrendering Punjab to chaos.

What even his critics could not deny was the result. The Punjab of today — its bustling bazaars, thriving farms, and open festivals — would not have been possible without the decisive security turnaround of the 1990s. Gill received the Padma Shri for his service to the nation, but the gratitude of millions of Punjabis who lived to see peace return was perhaps his greatest honour.

When KPS Gill passed away in 2017, tributes poured in from across India’s political and social spectrum. Many remembered him not just as a police officer, but as the man who gave Punjab back its nights, who made it possible again for families to walk the streets without fear.

Gill once said, “Policing is not about swagger or fear. It is about making sure that the law means something, and that the common man knows it.” For Punjab, during its darkest years, he ensured exactly that. His legacy remains a reminder that leadership in crisis is measured not by speeches, but by the safety of the people when the guns fall silent.