LUDHIANA: Indian security forces forced the management of Shahid Kartar Singh Sarabha hospital, Sudhar, to nearly close the institution by driving away its medical and para-medical staff.
The Jagraon district police picked up several members of the hospital staff including two senior doctors on the grounds that they had given medical assistance to an ailing activist of Bhindranwala Tiger Force of Khalistan, Bhai Paramjit Singh Pammi, tortured them and kept them in illegal custody.
The first to be arrested was Sarbjit Kaur, a hospital clerk, who was tortured in Jagraon and Sidhwan Bet police stations.
She was hung upside down and was subjected to steel rollers in the same way as male detainees are tortured, As a result she fell unconscious and the police had to have her treated for three days under its custody. Sarbjit Kaur was released only after hundreds of Sikhs laid siege to the Jagraon police station and stopped traffic on the Indo-Pak road.
According to an investigation carried out by Punjab Human Rights Organization, the police also picked up Dr.Romel Singh Mohi, Dr.Randir Singh Chahal, ambulance driver Harchand Singh, hospital trust general secretary Kuldip Singh Grewal, Manager Bhupinder Singh, They were tortured and humiliated for providing medical help to the “enemy,”
Kuldip Singh and Ajit Singh were stripped, beaten with leather belts and their legs were stretched apart. Along with Dr.Mohi, his wife and infant, too, were taken to the police station, Dr.Chahal himself as well as his father Joginder Singh and Brother Deepinder Singh were arrested at their Patiala residence.
Fearing further police repression, three doctors, eight nurses and other administrative staff members submitted their resignations from the jobs they hold in the hospital. The management has been compelled to nun the hospital with a skeleton staff and the main services are all but closed. Even the ruling party’s local legislator has protested against the police harbarjities but the Indian authorities remain unmoved. None of the government supported police officials responsible for the excesses has been pulled up.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 19, 1992
