CHANDIGARH: Seventy-nine year old Dr.Sohan Singh, the man who has been leading the Sikh militant movement for Independence of Punjab was arrested by the Indian police from a house, in Kathmandu, Nepal and taken to India where he was interrogated by KP.S.Gill, DG, and Punjab Police last week.

The Indian Press carried stones last week that Dr.Sohan Singh was caught in Mohali, Chandigarh on Nov but reliable source have intimated that he was being held by the police since on Oct.13, when the Indian police raided a house on Ring Road, Kathmandu from where he was arrested along with five of his close supporters Manjit Singh Kalike, Tarsem Singh Kaonke, Kewal Singh, Bhai Lahona and Surjit Singh. They were wisked away from Kathmandu on the morning of Oct. 14 while the Indian police informed the Nepal authorities that they were holding the doctor and his comrades at Hotel Snow land, Kathmandu for interrogation. According to Mr.Jagjit Singh Boparai, son of Dr, Sohan Singh, he was in communication with his father before the arrest and they had last spoken to him when he called from Kathmandu on Oct.5. He had come there from Pakistan.

Meanwhile, the Indian authorities have reported the arrest of Dr.Sohan Singh from Mohali but have not said anything about four of his lieutenants who accompanied him.

The Punjab Director General of Police K.P.S.Gill interrogated the Doctor Sahib and a video recording of the interrogation has been shown to Indian newsmen.

Doctor Sohan Singh, popularly known as Bapu Jiby Sikh militants spearheaded the militant movement for Khalistan since the last nine years. He is the architect of the Proclamation for Declaration of Khalistan. Answering queues from Punjab DG of Police, Doctor Sohan Singh was calm and composed and answered every question in detail, He justified the use of force to achieve independence and said Pakistan justified help to Sikh militants in thaw struggle for Khalistan as a national policy and also to avenge India’s support 16 Bengali’s in the creation of Bangladesh.

Doctor Sohan Singh is a reared Director of Health Services in the Punjab and being disillusioned with Indian government’s discriminators attitude towards Sikhs and the attack on the Harmandir Sahib in 1984 he became a militant protagonist of Khalistan movement. During the years of the Dharm Yudh Morcha when Sant Jamail Singh Bhindranwale was leading the Sikh movement Dr.Sohan Singh was closely associated with him and was one of his close advisors, in 1985, doe to Quell, pressure he went underground.

Brief History: Dr. Sohan Singh graduated from Medical College Lahore in 1940 and joined the Punjab Civil Medical Service where he attained the top post of Director. During his service he was responsible for a number of innovative schemes. Some of these for which he is well known are the ‘Medical Manthan’ where he introduced a periodic visit of a team of doctors to each village in a block to get to know their health problems and the organization of regular health camps in those blocks where doctors attended to the villages suffering from ailments detected.

As Director of Health he was responsible for upgrading a large number of village dispensaries into Hospitals. He worked on an important research project to slow down the aging process and patented an apparatus which used ‘anti-gravity’ for slowing down the ageing. Dr.Sohan Singh was a close associate of Sirdar Kapur Singh, the famous Sikh scholar. As an adviser to Sant Jamail Singh Bhindranwale he along with Gen Shabeg Singh was closely involved in getting Sikh intellectuals together in Darbar Sahib, Amritsar to resolve import issues facing the Sikhs, Due to his leadership of the militant movement he was forced to go underground in 1985 and he was unable to even attend the cremation of his wife in Aug.1993 when she died.

It is learnt from reliable sources that Dr.Sohan Singh is being held under arrest in a closely guarded house somewhere near Hoshiarpur in Punjab.

Our special correspondent reports: While Punjab chief minister Beant Singh and police chief K.P.S.Gill who made the announcement about the arrest claimed that the militant leader had been arrested at Mohali, information pouring in from external Sikhs suggested that he had, in reality, been held by the Indian intelligence agents from Kathmandu where he had gone to hold. A meeting of certain top militant leaders.

What made the official claim doubtful was the fact that the Mohali police was completely unaware of the alleged arrest from the Chandigarh suburb and the silence observed by government authorities about the claims of overseas Sikh groups. Nor have the Indian police announced any rewards for the arrest.

The Sikh leader is being lodged in a Punjab Forest Department rest house at Khanpur Kheri village in Hoshiarpur district, a Godforsaken place with difficult access. A minor criminal case (loitering about with doubtful intent) has been registered against him at Mohali police station to obviate the need for production before a magistrate, No member of Dr.Sohan Singh’s family has so far been allowed to meet him or get legal assistance.

Punjab police chief KP.S.Gill invited newsmen to see a video cassette showing Dr.Sohan Singh’s interrogation by Gill himself. Dr.Sohan Singh was shown sipping tea during interrogation. The ease with which he evidently replied to questions put to him with occasional observation “as I told you yesterday” indicated that the Khalistan leader had been in the custody of the police for several days prior to the recording of the interrogation.

The main aim of the authorities in showing the recording was to impress the world with India’s humane treatment of the elderly leader. Even in the heavily edited version it becomes quite clear that Dr.Sohan Singh has not given up pro Khalistan stand although he was critical of Pakistan’s inadequate help to the Khalistan movement revealing the movement leaders’ disappointment with Rawalpindi. The show was introduced to mostly influence the current elections to stale assemblies in favor of the Congress (I).

It is, however, obvious that the authorities are trying to ascertain the state of health of the old man to find out whether he would be able to bear the stress of intense interrogation that is likely to be done in the next few weeks. K.P.S.Gill said Dr.Sohan Singh was in good health.

The Indian authorities are providing no clue to the reports that certain other militant leaders, too, were arrested along with Dr.Sohan Singh from Kathmandu, Nepal.

Dr.Sohan Singh in his interrogation strongly condemned Akali leaders for hankering after political power. He also said that he was opposed to boycott of the 1992 Punjab Assembly election. He blamed for the contrary stand the Sikh student’s leader Bhai Daljit Singh and a Punjabi Tribune journalist who prematurely announced the boycott, he reportedly stated.

Article extracted from this publication >>  November 12, 1993