Shinder Singh Raja, a Sikh youngster was born to a Sikh farmer named Gurcharan Singh and his wife Jageer Kaur. Shinda, as he was nicknamed at home and village, was their third child after a son Rachpal Singh, a daughter Amarjeet Kaur and followed by another son Jang Singh.

Ever a loner, Shinda was easily swayed by the calls of the Sikh clergy to fight against India and Hindus that gave him a hope to achieve his self-worth. He weaponized his communal hatred against Hindu population of his native village of Saktaran in the district of Tarn Taran of Punjab.

As the Bengali myth goes Bobar Shotru Nei, meaning- a mute has no enemy, he was considered as a good pick for reconnaissance task coupled with his unintimidating appearance.

He used to locate the Hindu households in his village and nearby areas for the local units of Khalistan Commando Force which he had joined at the age of 19, in the year of 1984. He was placed under the command of Surjeet Singh Jakhar Khalsa.

He was part of a triplet with another two of his buddy-triplet; Bagicha Singh Khalsa and Salwinder Singh Dhamaka Khalsa.

The triplet was responsible for a number of firing incidents on the local Hindu community and an ambush in a CRPF outpost at the village of Saktaran.

Following the failed ambush the intelligence operatives of the CRPF and BSF started tracking the movements of the local youth and zeroed down on Shinda who has suddenly transformed from an introvert loner to a rampant wanderlust roaming around the locations of the victims.

On July 30, 1990 the BSF troops surrounded the Village of Lakhana on receiving the tip off about the arrival of a terror triplet in the village. In the ensuing encounter he and his comrade Satnam Singh Satta Khalsa was riddled with bullets while Salwinder was able to escape as he was away when his comrades were surrounded.

Following the encounter, the Khalistani propagandists started peddling the stories of the BSF suffering heavy casualties and still unable to touch the two who according to their tales died by suicide consuming Potassium Cyanide (KCN).

As photos of their bullet riddled bodies started being circulated by the human rights organizations making up cases of false encounters, the Khalistanis started getting demoralized. To boost the morale, the propaganda factory came with another gem- the BSF  had shot the deadbodies.

The post mortem report with no presence of KCN in their blood, never reached the Khalistani foot soldiers.