A youth released from prison by the Pakistani authorities meets his father at Wagah on Thursday. He was repatriated along with 20 other prisoners.
— Tribune photo by Rajiv Sharma |
Wagah, March 17
It was the most poignant moment in the life of Mr Satpal when he met his son, Narinder Pal, who entered India through the Wagah joint check post along with 20 other Indian prisoners on being repatriated by the Pakistan government today.
Like other parents, he swiftly moved to embrace his son who had been languishing in a Pakistani jail since long. The travel agent who charged Rs 1.5 lakh to send him to Lebanon to earn his livelihood had duped him. While the re-union of 21 families was made possible due to the sole effort of Capt Amarinder Singh, Chief Minister, who took up the matter with Government of Pakistan, the near and dear ones of the other 62 prisoners who had reached the Wagah joint check post after reading newspaper reports had to return disappointed. One of them was Ms Kaushalya Kaur, a resident of Kaloya (Hoshiarpur) who had reached the border to receive her son, Bhajan Singh, along with his son and daughter. They are likely to be released in the next few days.
It is for the first time that Indian prisoners were released on the request of any Chief Minister of a state. All the released prisoners were lodged in Kot Lakhpat Rai Jail, Lahore.
One of the 21 youths was Malkiat Singh of Ferozepore who had inadvertently crossed over to Pakistan 16 years ago. Visibly looking frail, he had lived his youthful days in prison.
Most of the prisoners, repatriated today were arrested on the border of Turkey while attempting to cross over to Greece. After completion of the sentence they were forcefully thrown into Iranian territory where they were pushed to Pakistan. This was the sordid tale of most of the hapless youths, mostly Punjabis.
