CHANDIGARH: The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) chief, Gurcharan Singh Tohra, has started an indefinite hunger strike at the Nidampur canal rest house in protest against his shifting from Amritsar to Sangrur.
Tohra was shifted to the Nidampur canal rest house, which has been converted into a makeshift jail, yesterday. Immediately after his arrival at the rest house, Tohra started a hunger strike.
Gurcharan Singh Tohra had reportedly requested the State Government not to “shift him from Amritsar on medical grounds.” The doctors according to sources
close to the SGPC chief had advised against his shifting to any other place for the next couple of weeks.
Gurcharan Singh Tohra also refused to allow doctors to examine him at the new makeshift jail.
No interviews were being allowed with the SGPC chief.
Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa a senior UAD leader who went to meet Tohra at Nidampur canal Test house, complained that he was refused permission by the police and the jail staff to go near the rest house.
Dhindsa said he had gone to meet Tohra in the morning. At that time he was refused permission, He said he met the Deputy Commissioner of Sangrur and the Inspector General of Prisons near the rest house, They promised to allow him an interview with Gurcharan Singh around 4 pm. He alleged that when he went there at the appointed time, the jail staff and the police again refused him permission. They also did not bother to know his identity. The behavior of the staff was also not congenial. The staff members refused to confirm from the Deputy Commissioner whether he had permitted interviews with the imprisoned leader.
Tohra has since been shifted to Patiala Central jail.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 16, 1989
