Vasiljković, who had served in the Australian Army, had returned to Yugoslavia in 1990 during the Croatian independence movement, eventually being hired as an instructor for volunteers in the summer of 1991.

At this time, Belgrade daily Politika published a comic book named The Demons Return that featured the Kninjas fighting the Croats with martial arts.

Vasiljković served a 15-year prison sentence for war crimes by the Croatian court in Split.

In the 257 operations conducted by the Kninjas,[9] only one out of the 64 soldiers died due to a direct explosion by a grenade on his head and another four were injured.

[9] The Bosnian Serb nationalist singer Baja Mali Knindža chose his stagename in honour of the Kninjas.