By IANS,
Chandigarh : Relatives of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Saturday offered prayers in guudwaras in Punjab as he underwent heart surgery at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi.
“We offered prayers at the Golden Temple for his speedy recovery. We are now heading for Delhi to be with his family,” said Surjit Singh Kohli, half-brother of the prime minister.
While two half-brothers of the prime minister live in Amritsar, his wife Gursharan Kaur’s sister and her family live in the industrial city of Ludhiana.
Born in Gah village, now in Pakistan, Manmohan Singh studied and then taught in the Sikh holy city of Amritsar. He later worked at the Panjab University in Chandigarh in the 1950s and 1960s.
The country’s first Sikh prime minister owns a house in Chandigarh’s upscale Sector 11 even though he has never been able to live here.
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal had wished the prime minister speedy recovery, officials said.
Badal senior had also called up the family of the prime minister Friday to convey his best wishes.
Congress leaders in Amritsar and a few other places also organised prayers for Manmohan Singh.