[6] It was active throughout the 1980s in the Punjab insurgency and gained international notoriety in June 1985, for killing 329 civilians (mostly Canadians) in Air India Flight 182 in Canada's worst case of mass murder[7][8] and for the associated 1985 Narita International Airport bombing – a bungled attempt at mass murder on a second Air India flight on the same day.

[26][full citation needed] The chief proponents of this attitude were BK, Akhand Kirtani Jatha, Damdami Taksal and the All India Sikh Students Federation, which was banned by the government.

[87] In 2004, several members of the BK, accused of being involved in the assassination of CM Beant Singh, broke out of the Burail Jail and escaped to Pakistan.

[87] On 14 October 2007, BK militants bombed the Shingar Cinema Complex in Ludhiana, Punjab in which 6 people were killed and 37 wounded.

[111][112] Four Babbar Khalsa members were arrested and later bailed in July 2010 in connection with the murder of a Sikh leader in Punjab, India.

[113] In March 2012, the execution of Balwant Singh Rajoana was stayed by the central government due to appeals by the SGPC.

[87] On 30 September 2012, retired military general of the Indian armed forces, Lt. Gen Kuldip Singh Brar, who led the Operation Blue Star, was attacked with a knife on Oxford Street, London in an assassination attempt.

[87] In March 2017, Balwinder Singh, the head of BK's operations in the United States, was sentenced to 15 years in prison by Nevada U.S. district judge for conspiracy to launch a terrorist attack in India in 2013.

[117] Singh pleaded guilty to providing funding and materials to a co-conspirator, who was to travel to India to assassinate or maim an Indian government official.

[118][87] Between 2017 and 2023, many operatives, members and smugglers of BK were arrested within the territory of India and imprisoned by Indian courts as Punjab saw a new rise in Khalistani presence in the state.

[119] Historically, to get the financial and material support needed for operating terrorist activities, Babbar Khalsa has used in-person meetings, public rallies and fundraising events.

[2] BKI at present is active in the US, Canada, the UK, Belgium, France, Germany, Norway, Switzerland and Pakistan.