Amritsar, August 29
The families of prisoners of war (POWs) today sent “concrete evidence” to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, giving proof of the POWs languishing in Pakistani jails.
Canada-based Sheetal Das Kaler, secretary of the South Asian Human Rights Group, also made a startling revelation about the presence of POWs in Kot Lakhpat Rai Jail, Lahore, when he visited the jail to meet Sarbjit Singh, who has been sentenced to death.
The name of Major Ashok Suri was broadcast by Lahore based Radio Pakistan in its acclaimed Punjabi Darbar programme on January 6 and 7, 1972. His father also received letters from a Karachi jail on August 13, 1975, stating that there were at least 20 other Indian officers with him.
The missive to the Prime Minister by Dr Bharat Suri, son of Major Ashok Suri and president of the Missing Defence, Personnel Relatives Association reads, “54 defence personnel have been missing in action since the 1971 war. We have proof that most were captured alive (newspapers, radio broadcasts, handwritten letter in one case). Successive governments have promised support (letters exist from Indira Gandhi and Narasimha Rao pledging support) but not solved this problem.”
Expressing dismay over the “casual approach” of the Central Government about the status of the POWs, Dr Simmi
Waraich, daughter of one of the POWs, asked, “When will the war end for these valiant soldiers who had fought for the country ?” Talking to The Tribune, she said the Government of India should prevail upon Pakistan to allow the families of POWs to visit various jails and bring the truth before the world. She said Pakistan had announced the capture of the POWs after the Indo-Pak war.
A Muslim from Malerkotla had also confirmed the presence of the POWs in Pakistani jails .
Major Sharanjitpal Singh Waraich’s name (father of Dr
Simmi) is on the top of the list of the 54 POWs from the 1971 war.
Quoting a book published in 1980 titled “Bhutto- Trial and Execution”, covering the period when Bhutto was detained in the Kot Lakhpat jail, Dr Simmi Waraich said Bhutto’s lawyer heard the screams of Indian POWs. Jail staff revealed to Bhutto’s lawyer that they were Indian POWs who had been rendered delinquent and mental after their capture and subsequent torture.
In his book, “Main Pakistan Mein Bharat Ka Jasus
Tha”, written by the late Mohanlal Bhaskar, gave a signed affidavit stating that in Fort of Attack, a Pakistani Major Ayaj Ahmed Sipra (imprisoned for conspiring against Bhutto) spoke of his befriending a Gill of the Indian Air Force and a Captain Singh of the Indian Army as well as mentioning that there were around 40 POWs of the 1965 and 1971 wars in that jail and that there was no hope of their release. Bhaskar was in a Pakistan jail on espionage charges.
A Pakistan online report also confirmed that as many as 182 Indian prisoners, including five women, had been languishing in Pakistani jails on “unknown charges” since 1971, and many suffering memory loss.
Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao will present the classified report in the Senate on Wednesday. This is for the first time that a Pakistani government has officially recorded the data of Indian prisoners, many of whom entered Pakistani territory by mistake.
