8 years later, activist Surat Singh Khalsa discharged from DMCH, returns home

A band was hired to welcome him and flower petals were showered on his arrival. Soon after getting discharged, Khalsa said, “I want Punjab’s communal harmony to be maintained at all costs. I am keen to visit the Qaumi Insaaf Morcha (QIM) in Mohali. I am a loyal panth soldier and I will abide by the directions of Jathedar Jagtar Singh Hawara.”

He was brought to his house amid slogans of Bandi Singh riha karo (release jailed Sikh prisoners). His daughter Sarwarinder Kaur said that police and medical staff have been deputed at the house and the activist’s health will be constantly monitored. “We have been told by doctors as well as district administration authorities that Bapuji can’t be taken to any other place for the next two days. His regular medical check up will be done by the doctors and after two days, he will first visit the The Golden Temple and then if he wants, we will take him to QIM protest site,” Kaur, who has come from the US to see her father, said, adding, “It is my father’s birthday on March 7 and we are happy that we are all together this year.”

Khalsa, who is also a US citizen, had started hunger strike at his Hassanpur residence on January 16, 2015, with the demand that the government release ‘Bandi Singhs’ who have completed their jail terms. At the time, the SAD-BJP government was in power in Punjab. The authorities kept on admitting him to the civil hospital Ludhiana, DMCH, and even PGI Chandigarh every now and then from February 26, 2015, onwards. On October 31, 2015, he was shifted to DMCH owing to ill health and was discharged on December 1 of that year only to be readmitted to the hospital in June 2016.

He ended his hunger strike on January 14, 2023, but was discharged from the hospital only on Saturday.