CHANDIGARH: The SGPC president G.S.Tohra has reportedly gone underground following police raids apparently for his arrest in the wake of the allegation that he is involved in the killing of the Akali Dal (Mann) leader Baldev Singh Lang.
However Major Singh Oboke senior vice-president of the SGPC told newsmen here that Tohra had gone to Nanded Sahib in Maharashtra. The SGPC chief is a member of the Hazur Sahib Sachkhand Gurdwara Management Board which looks after the historic Nanded Sahib Sikh shrine.
The Patiala police is said to have been looking for Tohra at several places in Punjab besides Chandigarh believing that the apex Sikh body supreme is hiding somewhere in the state or in the union territory.
Uboke presided over an emergency meeting of the SGPC executive at its local sub-office to consider the situation arising out of the government’s action against Tohra. The executive said in a resolution that by involving Tohra in murder cases the Punjab Government was bent upon maligning Tohra the SGPC and the religious and political glory of the Sikhs under some deliberate conspiracy.
The resolution said that Tohra had suffered privations in jails in the past decade fighting black laws fake encounters and massacres of Sikh youths. The Congress (I) government in Punjab was now emulating past tyrants in mounting excesses and challenges to the Sikhs.
When his attention was drawn to the decision of the AISSF (M) to probe the allegation against Tohra and also to its demand that he should step down as the SGPC chief pending completion of the inquiry Oboke said the executive had deputed its senior member Gurdial Singh Roranwali to meet the AISSF president Bhai Manjit Singh in Bhatinda jail to verify the decision announced by two senior functionaries of the federation at a news conference at Chandigarh three days ago. Roranwali would also enquire from Bhai Manjit Singh if the AISSF wanted to hold a parallel decision SGPC general house as was stated by its leaders the SGPC executive committee meeting was attended by 12 out of 15 members. The absentees were Tohra Thakar Singh Khamanon and Shiv Singh Khushipur. The resolution described Tohraas symbol of the honor and Of the: Sikhs and the government k any action against it appeal democratic forces abroad to raise their voice against this “State repression.”
Oboke said that the leuer of Isher Singh Lang the brother of late Baldey Singh Lang to the Chief Minister demanding inquiry into the murder was also a “part of the anti-Tohra conspiracy.”
Article extracted from this publication >> June 5, 1992
