Giani Gurdial Singh Ajnoha

Giani Gurdial Singh Ajnoha was Jathedar, the head priest, of the Akal Takht in the years just before Operation Blue Star. Wikipedia's table of Jathedars gives his term as 2 March 1980 to 18 March 1982 and says he died in office. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says Giani Kirpal Singh took over as Jathedar of the Akal Takht on the sudden death of Giani Gurdial Singh Ajnoha, but gives no date. The dates therefore rest on Wikipedia's table alone.

Key moments, from Gurmit Singh's History of Sikh Struggles:

• 20 September 1981: the book lists G.S. Ajnoha, whom it calls the Head Priest of the Golden Temple, with Sant Harchand Singh Longowal, Gurcharan Singh Tohra and Jathedar Santokh Singh of Delhi on the stage at Chowk Mehta on the day Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale surrendered to the police.
• October 1981: after Bhindranwale's release, the book says he proposed that Sant Longowal step down from the presidency of the Akali Dal and hand temporary charge of the party to the head priest of the Akal Takht, Jathedar Gurdial Singh Ajnoha.
• 1982: the book says Tohra, as president of the SGPC, wrote to the Prime Minister that negotiations should be broad-based, and hinted that both Bhindranwale and the Akal Takht head priest, Ajnoha, should take part.

Beyond these passages, the sources opened for this page say little about his life, and nothing about his birth or the cause of his death, so none of that is stated here.