One of Amar Singh Chamkila’s killers is still alive, says Mehsampur director; family that hosted singer’s final show had to flee country

A news report in The Print traces the aftermath of Chamkila’s murder, which took place in the village of Mehsampur. The band arrived at the venue at 2pm, ate lunch and headed to the stage for the performance. Just as Chamkila and Amarjot stepped out, they were gunned down by three masked men in turbans. In a few seconds, as villagers scrambled to save their lives. The killers also shot down two of Chamkila’s band members. Four people, including a man named Makkhan Singh, carried Chamkila and Amarjot’s bodies on a trolley, all the way to Phillaur.

The identity of the village was changed forever after the murders.

Surinder Singh, former sarpanch of Mehsampur, said that the tragedy was so massive, people were in shock for months. The residents would not gather “out of fear”, and the “black day” is all they could talk about. The sarpanch revealed that the family that had invited Chamkila and Amarjot to perform that day for an engagement party, “blamed themselves” for the incident. Many in the village also held them “responsible.”

“The family left soon after. There was a lot of badnami/slander. They could not stay on here and had to migrate to Canada,” Singh added. But the sequence of tragedy didn’t end. Fifteen days after the assassination, revolutionary poet Pash was also killed. The same year in December, veteran actor Dharmendra’s cousin, actor Veerendra Singh, was also murdered.

According to the report, filmmaker Kabir Singh Chowdhry — who had made a movie on Chamkila called Mehsampur — now wants to start work on his next theatrical production, Laal Pari. “It’s going to be about one of the three killers, who is still alive. I spent time with him before making Mehsampur,” the filmmaker claimed.

Amar Singh Chamkila, also starring Parineeti Chopra, is currently streaming on Netflix. The film has opened to rave reviews, with many praising Diljit’s performance.