ISF takes out protest march

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, October 21

With the demand for rehabilitation of the families of RAW spies, including Satpal, who had died in a prison in Pakistan in 2000, activists of the Independent Student’s Federation (ISF) held a protest march here today.

Apart from the activists of the ISF, two daughters and a son of former spy Satpal also took part in the protest march. Commencing from the Hall gate, the march concluded at Jallianwala Bagh.

One of Satpal’s daughters, Jyoti, said after her father passed away in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail following inhuman torture in 2000, they had a harrowing time meeting family expenses. She said they had to drop out of school and do menial jobs to make both ends meet. She recalled that leaders like Sonia Gandhi, Maninderjit Singh Bitta and Laxmi Kanta Chawla had met them after the Pakistan Government had handed over his body. However, no monetary aid was given. She said her brother Surinderpal, who also dropped out of school after plus two, was forced to work as a daily-wage painter.

She said, unable to face the turn of events and challenges that occurred, her mother also passed away.

She said about 17 years after the death of her father at the hands of the Pakistan Government, monetary aid still eluded the family, forcing both sisters to works as domestic help.

ISF president Keshav Kohli, seeking justice for the family, submitted a memorandum, addressed to Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, at the Deputy Commissioner office.

He said in case the government did not deliver justice to the family, then they would intensify the agitation.